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Book. 






MYSTERIES 



HEAD AND THE HEART 



EXPL^I^ED: 



AN IMPROVED SYSTEM OF PHRENOLOGY; A NEW THEORY OF 
THE EMOTIONS, AND AN EXPLANATION OF THE MYSTE- 
RIES OF MESMERISM, TRANCE, MIND-READING, 
AND THE SPIRIT DELUSION. 



ILLUSTRATED BY UPWARDS OF ONE HUNDRED ENGRAVINGS. 



By J. STANLEY GRIMES, 



THIRD EDITION. 



CHICAGO : 
HENRY A. SUMNER & COMPANY, 

1881. 



w ■ 



COPYRIGHT, 

W. B. KEEN, COOKE & CO., 

A. D. 1875. 






^ 






i- ! i 



Ff^ancis S. Grimes, M.. D., 

THIS VOLUME IS DEDICATED, 

AS AN ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF HIS VALUABLE ASSISTANCE 

AND CO-OPERATION, 

FOR SEVERAL TEARS, WHILE THE AUTHOR WAS ENGAGED IN 

RESEARCHES, THE RESULTS OP WHICH ARE 

RECORDED IN THESE 

PAGES. 



INTRODUCTORY 



This Volume contains a summary of the results of more than 
forty years of study and experience concerning Mental Phenom- 
ena. Part First consists of what the author and his friends 
regard as a greatly improved system of Phrenology. Part 
Second contains an entirely new account of the relations of 
the body and mind to each other, including several discoveries 
concerning the Physiology of the Emotions, and their beneficial 
effects upon the heart and other vital organs. Part Third is 
devoted to an application of the principles previously explained, 
to solve the mysteries that have hitherto surrounded the phe- 
nomena of Trance, Mesmerism, and Spiritism. 

If any of my readers, on seeing that my whole superstructure 
is founded upon phrenology, are inclined to reject it on that 
account, with the remark that they do not believe in phrenology, 
my reply is that I ask no one to believe in it. Science is not a 
matter of belief, but of positive knowledge. If it cannot be 
demonstrated to be true beyond all doubt, it does not deserve to 
be regarded as a science at all. No one is expected to believe in 
chemistry, in geology, or in astronomy. When Galileo, by 
means of his newly invented telescope, discovered that Jupiter 
had four moons, some of his opponents declared that they did 
not believe it. Very well, said Galileo, I do not ask you to be- 
lieve, I only ask you to look through this small tube and see 
them for yourselves ; but instead of looking they arrested and 
punished him. 

Now I assert, from abundant experience, that no person can 
fairly examine phrenology for a single day, under the guidance 
of a competent examiner, without finding satisfactory evidence 
that its main features are in accordance with nature. Let me 
suggest a few tests : 1. Find a man with a very low, wide, short 

(v) 



VI IJ5TTK0DUCT0KY. 

head, and lie will, upon acquaintance, in all cases, prove to be 
extremely selfish, and indifferent to the interests and wants of 
his fellow men. 2. Find another, whose head is very high and 
long and narrow, and he will prove to be deficient in selfishness; 
he will be prone to neglect his own affairs and attend to those 
of others. 3. Find a man whose head is high in front and low 
at the upper back part, and he will be found to be deficient in 
firmness of purpose ; on the contrary, one who is low in front 
and high at the back of the head, in the region of Firmness, will 
manifest decision and stability of character. 4. Find one who is 
very prominent in the lower part of the forehead and narrow and 
retreating in the reflective region, and he will prove to be a mere 
imitator, and incapable of invention. 

The history of the commencement of this science is exceed- 
ingly instructive. Francis Joseph Grail, the founder of phre- 
nology, was born in Suabia, in Germany, in 1757. At the age 
of nine, as he himself states, he was placed, with another boy, 
under the tuition of an uncle, and while with him was often 
reprimanded for his inability to compete with his companion in 
learning by rote, although in other respects he greatly excelled 
him. The two boys were subsequently sent to school at Basle, 
where thirty boys attended, several of whom committed to mem- 
ory with such facility, that, although they stood in the eighth or 
tenth place in other exercises, in this they rose to the highest. 
Two of the thirty even excelled Gall's first companion ; and he 
was struck at the coincidence of all of them having eyes so 
prominent as to have given rise to the nickname of bull's eyes. 
He was subsequently transferred to another school, and again 
lost his place by inability to compete with other boys at verbal 
recitation ; and here, too, he observed the projecting eyes of those 
who excelled him in this exercise. At a later period he again 
suffered defeat in the same way at the college of Strasburgh, and 
by youths whose eyes exhibited the same kind of prominence. 
Here was the beginning of phrenological discovery. He now 
entered upon the study of medicine. This, of all professions, 
was best calculated to aid him in his new researches, not only by 
outward observations in connection with mental manifestations, 
but also in extending his researches to the brain itself, by exami- 
nation after death. 

The first written notice of Dr. Gall's enquiries concerning the 
head, appeared in a familiar letter to Baron Retzer, which was 



INTKODUCTORY. VU 

inserted in a German periodical, in December, 1798. Two years 
previous he had given private lectures upon the subject at 
Vienna. Some of his hearers made public notices of his doc- 
trines, which ultimately drew from the Austrian government an 
edict that such lectures must cease, his doctrines being consid- 
ered dangerous to religion. Gall then removed to Paris, where 
he remained until his death, which occurred in 1828. It is an 
interesting and remarkable fact, that while Gall was in Paris, it 
was, temporarily at least, the residence of a greater number of 
the fathers of science than ever honored any other city of the 
world during an equal time. Among these were Cuvier, the 
father of systematic paleontology, with his celebrated pupils, 
Beaumont and Agassiz ; Lamark, the father ot the doctrine of 
evolution ; Franklin, the inventor of the lightning-rod, and the 
discoverer of the electric nature of lightning; Rumford, the 
father of the doctrine of the co-relation of force; Bichat, the 
father of modern physiology; Laplace, the author of the nebular 
hypothesis; Mesmer, the father of the practice of artificial 
trance ; Lavoiseur, one of the fathers of chemistry ; and Cham- 
polion, the father of Egyptology, and the first decipherer of 
hieroglyphics. 

All the sciences which may be said to have had their birth 
near the beginning of the present century, have been more culti- 
vated and improved, and more readily adopted, than phrenology. 
The reasons are not difficult to discover. The other sciences had 
no rival systems to supplant as phrenology had. 

A metaphysical system of mental philosophy was taught in 
every superior school in Christendom — a science of mind with 
the organs of mind left out. This metaphysical system lay at 
the foundation of the theological doctrines of all the sects, To 
teach that the mind is dependent upon material organs, and sub- 
ject to physiological laws, they regarded as equivalent to teach- 
ing materialism and fatalism ; in other words, rank heresy and 
infidelity. Gall and Spurzheim not only had to encounter the 
mental philosophy of the schools, but the theology of the 
churches. A more formidable opposition cannot be imagined. 
The consequence is that phrenology has been taboed and ex- 
cluded from all regular schools and colleges, and forced to make 
its way not only without their assistance, but in spite of all their 
opposing influences. 

This book is an attempt to advance phrenology, and bestow 



Vlll INTRODUCTORY. 

upon it the dignity of a systematic science, by showing that it is 
inseparably connected with physiology ; that when any emotion 
of the mind is excited, the head and the heart act in unison to 
effect the purpose of the will. I have furthermore endeavored 
to demonstrate that this new system of phreno-physiology fur- 
nishes the only reasonable explanation of the phenomena of 
trance Mesmerism and Spiritism. 

As these pages will doubtless be perused by many who are 
but slightly acquainted with the history and details of the 
subjects treated, it is due to them, to my predecessors, and to 
myself, that I should designate the principal innovations that 
I have made both in Physiology and in Phrenology, and thus 
enable the reader to distinguish the new from the old : 

I. Gall and Spurzheim discovered all the phrene organs now 
generally recognized, except Alimentiveness, which was discov- 
ered by Dr. Hoppe, of Copenhagen, and Vitativeness, which was 
first suggested by Vimont, of France. He and Andrew Combe 
thought that it was situated too far from the outside of the head 
to be made the subject of examination during life. But I found 
that persons whose heads were full immediately under Destruc- 
tiveness, so as to crowd the ears outward, Avere remarkably 
apprehensive of personal injuries and of sickness, and were 
unnecessarily anxious about their health. I regard it as the 
propensity to preserve the constitution and health, rather than 
the life, and have, therefore, named it Sanativeness, from the 
Latin sanatas, soundness or healthiness. 

II. Gall made no classification of the organs, and proposed 
no new philosophy of the mind. In his published catalogues 
he mingled the Intellectual, Ipseal and Social organs together 
with very little discrimination. His proceedings were purely 
empirical. He found Destructiveness large in the heads of mur- 
derers, and he therefore called it the organ of murder; he 
denominated Acquisitiveness theft; Secretiveness lying, and 
Submissiveness religion. Spurzheim possessed a more analyt- 
ical and methodical mind; he pointed out the fact that the 
Intellectuals are all grouped together in the forehead, and that 
they are all perceptives except the two highest, which are reflec- 
tives. The other organs he denominated affective faculties, or 
feelings. He observed that the organs in the lower parts of the 
brain are manifested by animals even more decidedly than by 
man ; he therefore denominated them animal propensities, while 



INTRODUCTORY. IX 

the higher organs of the brain, being much more strongly- 
manifested by man, he n'amed them Moral Sentiments. I regard 
this last division as unfortunate. There is no place where a line 
can be drawn so that all above it may be regarded as peculiarly 
human or moral, and all below it animal. Besides, the higher 
organs are just as much propensities as the lower, and some of 
the lower — those, for example, that relate to friendship and 
love — are accompanied with quite as much of sentiment as any 
of the higher. 

Spurzheim confounded the Social and Ipseal propensities 
together; he classed Amativeness and Adhesiveness with 
Destructiveness and Acquisitiveness ; Cautiousness with Benev- 
olence, and Hope with Firmness. Mr. George Combe, and all 
the other European and American Phrenologists, have adopted 
a similar incongruous arrangement in all their works. 

III. The reader will perceive that I have made an important 
change in the classification and arrangement of the organs, by 
recognizing all as Ipseal or Social propensities that are not 
Intellectuals, and regarding feelings or emotions as mere tem- 
porary states of mind and body produced by excited propensities. 

IV. I have also taken the liberty to change the names of 
some of the organs when I conceived that they were calculated 
to mislead inexperienced students. Conscientiousness I have 

Note. — Dr. Wm. Carpenter, the most distinguished and able physiologist 
of Europe, has lately published a volume of iipwards of seven hundred pages 
on Mental Physiology, in which, I am sorry to say, he does great injustice to 
his own reputation. It cannot be said that he is an anti-phrenologist, 
although he ignores the doctrines of Gall and Spurzheim, for he introduces 
in its place a phrenology of his own, which he seems to regard with great 
complacency. He places the lower^ mental faculties in the forehead, the 
higher in the posterior lobes, and the emotions and the sensorium among the 
sub- cerebral ganglia. The brain he regards as the organ of all the mental 
faculties excepting the will. This is independent of the body, and has no 
particular local habitation. It is a kind of lobby member of the mental 
congress. It however exerts a kind of regulating influence over the body 
and mind in a manner which he does not explain. Dr. Carpenter does not 
cite any authority to fortify his unphysiological assumptions, except that of 
Cardinal Manning. Now, although I have great respect for the opinions of 
the learned Cardinal in matters relating to the Catholic church, I beg leave, 
with all deference, to suggest that physiology is not properly within his 
jurisdiction, and I may therefore be permitted to question his infallibility 
when treating of this subject. It is evident that Dr. Carpenter derived his 
notions concerning the will from the old theological, rather than irom the 
modern medical schools. 



X INTRODUCTORY. 

changed to Equitableness or Justice. The organ in question 
does not alone produce honesty nor the feeling known among 
Christian people as Conscientiousness; Reverence, and proper 
moral and religious training are necessary to produce those 
desirable states of the mind. The state of mind called Mirth- 
fulness depends upon large Hopefulness, small Cautiousness 
and good health. I regard the organ (miscalled Mirthfulness) 
as the propensity to try experiments, and wit as one of its 
sportive manifestations when combined with a keen intellect. 
The organ that has been called Marvelousness, Wonder, Super- 
naturality and Spirituality, I regard as the propensity to believe 
the testimony and assertions of others. The names that have 
been given to this propensity indicate only its excesses and not 
its proper and normal manifestations. As for the candidate and 
doubtful organs, at the base of the brain, I wish it distinctly 
understood that I only propose them for investigation, and not 
for acceptance without further evidence in their favor. 

V. In 1845 I first published the conclusion, at which I had 
arrived some time previous, that the oblongata is the seat of the 
consciousness of all mental impressions. Since then I find that 
several European and American authors have adopted the idea. 

VI. I first insisted upon a distinction being made between the 
dormant faculties and the states of mind that they produce when 
excited. 

VII. The fact that the emotions powerfully influence the vital 
organs has always been known, and Gall was the first to suggest 
that the sympathetic nerve was the channel of this influence; 
but I have attempted to show that the emotional influence is a 
useful and functional one, and that it is of a preliminary char- 
acter. 

VIII. In studying the relations of the voluntary and involun- 
tary functions to each other, I have ascertained that the accents 
of speech are related to pulsation, and the pauses to the respira- 
tory movements, and that both are almost entirely involuntary. 

IX. I have demonstrated that what is called spirit trance, or 
Mesmeric sleep, depends upon the excessive action of the de- 
pressing propensities, especially of Submissiveness. 

It has never before been taught that those propensities 
which increase the voluntary exertions increase the circulation 
to sustain the exertions, and that, on the contrary, those propen- 
sities which restrain the voluntary exertions restrain the circu- 



INTRODUCTORY. XI 

lation also. Before this law was known it was impossible to 
understand the cause* of trance, the phenomena of Mesmerism, 
and the mental manifestations of the spiritists. 

Several very able writers — Maudsley, Spencer, Bain, Carpen- 
ter, Tuke — have, within a short time, written with great learn- 
ing and ability concerning the relations of the mind and body, 
without adding much to our knowledge of the subject. The 
reason is evident. They overlooked or ignored the only prin- 
ciples upon which their problems can be solved. 

This book does not contain a mere theoretical essay; it is 
adapted to the wants of those who wish to make themselves 
acquainted with both the principles and the practice of Phren- 
ology and Mesmerism, including the development of the so-called 
spirit mediums. 

Any person of common abilities who will carefully study 
these pages can learn to go into any community, and in a few days 
develop several writing, ghost and vision-seeing, table-tipping 
and speaking mediums, and at the same time so vary his exper- 
iments as to convince all reasonable and unprejudiced persons 
that all the honest manifestations proceed from the unbalanced 
and dreaming brains of the mediums and the credencive imag- 
inations of their patrons. 

For the information of those who wish to consult other authors 
upon phrenology, I will state that " Combe's System," together 
with this volume, contains substantially all that is at present 
known upon the subject. 

Chicago, May, 1875. 



In order to learn phrenology practically, a plaster bust is necessary, upon 
which the locations of the phrene organs are correctly marked. None of 
those that I have seen are reliable. I have, therefore, had one made which 
accords with my own experience. It may be procured in Chicago at the book 
score of W. B. Keen & Company, 33 and 40 Madison street. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



PART FIEST— THE HEAD. 

Classification and Arrangement of the Phrene Organs 5 

Observation or Individuality explained _ 13 

Flavor 14 

Form 16 

Size 17 

Weight 18 

Locality 19 

Words or Language 21 

Color 23 

Order 24 

Number 25 

Eventuality 29 

Time '. - 29 

Comparison 30 

Causality .. 32 

Alimentiveness . 37 

Sanativeness or Vitativeness 40 

Candidate Organs 41 

Destructiveness 44 

Combativeness . - — 46 

Secretiveness - 48 

Cautiousness - - 51 

Constructiveness - 56 

Acquisitiveness.- 58 

Tunefulness.. 63 

Experimentrveness— Wit — Mirthfulness 65 

Perfectiveness — Ideality 67 

Hopefulness - - -- 73 

(xiii) 



XIV TABLE OF CONTENTS. 

Amativeness 81 

Earenti veness — Philoprogenitiveness 86 

Inhabitiveness — Concentrativeness 89 

Adhesiveness 91 

Imperativeness — Self Esteem 91 

Approbativeness... 94 

Firmness 98 

Equitableness — Justice — Conscientiousness 101 

Submissiveness — Eeverence 105 

Kindness — Benevolence 108 

Imitativeness 110 

Credenciveness — Marvellousness — Wonder 114 

Memory — The Temperaments ., . 121 

Large Brains and Small.. 128 

Practical Phrenology 131 

Physiognomy 189 

Instinctive Faculties 142 

Play of the Faculties 144 

Myths ..147 

The Brain 150 

Technical Terms .155 

Structure of the Brain 158 

The Organ of Consciousness 166 

The Striatum and Thalamus 170 

Evolutions of the Mind... ..188 

The Posterior Lobes — An Objection Answered 197 



PAET SECOND— THE HEAET. 

Physiology of the Emotions 203 

Prelimination ..204 

Kelationsof Body and Mind .1. 205 

The Nerves — Nerve Substance _ .209 

A Nervous Apparatus 211 

Division of Nervous System. ..213 

Locations and Functions of the Emotions 223 

Definitions and Explanations 229 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. XV 

The Will— The Uses of the Emotions 232 

Continued Action of Emfttions .235 

Faith — Expectation __ . .239 

Emotions and Development 239 

Why Women are more Emotional 240 

Laughter and Tears ...241 

Physiology of Accent and Vocal Expression 243 



PAET THIED. 

THE HEAD AND HEART UNBALANCED. 

Producing Trance, etc. - _ . . .251 

Why some are more easily Entranced 257 

Will and Self-Will 264 

Abnegation of Will .266 

History and Theories of Mesmerism _ 268 

Credencive Induction 270 

Practical Instruction in Producing Trance 274 

Ascertaining Susceptibility 277 

Manner of Inducing Hallucination 279 

Two Opposing Wills 285 

How to Make a Subject ...286 

Influence of Imitativeness and Credenciveness in Trance 288 

Trance and Poetic Genius ..289 

Kelation of Imagination to Emotion 291 

Relation of Emotion to Diseases 293 

Manifestations of Strength and Insensibility 295 

Mind Reading 296 

Emotional Insanity .302 

Modern Spiritism. 306 

Prof. Wallace 307 

Anti-Christian Spir? fcists 312 

Evidence and its Riles... 314 

The Fox Girls — Mrs. Fox's Account 319 

Deposition of Mrs. Culver ..321 

Professors Flint and Lee 323 



XVI TABLE OF CONTENTS. 

Prof. Page 325 

Hon. R. D. Owen and Katie King .327 

Hon. L. C. Ball 329 

Mental Manifestations 331 

Trance Speakers . 336 

Mrs. Hardinge 341 

Hon. J. M. Peebles ....342 

Personation ..343 

Degrees and Modes of Trance and Conformity 344 

Hallucination 346 




Figure 1. 



EXPLANATION OF THE BUST. 

The three classes of organs are separated from each other by 
double lines. The Intellectuals are in the forehead; the Ipseals or 
self-relative propensities on the side; and the Social propensities 
occupy the posterior and upper parts of the head. 



THE HEAD AND THE HEAET, 



INTELLECTUALS. 



PERCEPTIVES. 

PAGE. 

Obs. — Observation or Individuality - 13 

A?— Flavor 14 

Form. — Gives width between the eyes . 16 

Size. — Gives width to the part where the forehead and nose 

join. 17 

Wt.— Weight 18 

Lo. — Locality 19 

Words. — Language.... 20 

C— Color 23 

O.— Order 24 

N— Number 25 

Ev. — Eventuality 29 

T— Time 29 



REFLECTIVES. 

Com. — Comparison 30 

Cau. — Causality 32 



THE HEAD. 



IPSEAL OR SELF-RELATIVE 
PROPENSITIES. 



CORPOREAL RANGE, 

PAGE. 

Al. — Alimentiveness 37 

San. — Sanativeness 40 

B ? Unknown 1 Beyond all doubt there are organs in these 

n 9 Unknown I s P aces which will yet be discovered, relat- 

' fing to sleep, breathing, warmth and other 
D?— Unknown j bodily wants 41 

BELIGERENT RANGE. 

Des. — Destructiveness 44 

Comb. — Combativeness. 46 

PRUDENTIAL RANGE. 

Sec. — Secretiveness 48 

Caut. — Cautiousness 51 

INDUSTRIAL RANGE. 

Con. — Constructiveness - 54 

Acq. — Acquisitiveness 56 

IMPROVING RANGE. 

Tu.— Tunefulness 61 

Exp. — Experimentiveness . 63 

Per. — Perfectiveness - 65 

H. — Hopefulness - 71 



THE HEAD AND THE HEART, 



SOCIAL PROPENSITIES. 



DOMESTIC GROUP. 

PAGE. 

E? — Equilibrium or Locomotion 81 

Am. — Amativeness . 81 

Pa.— Parentiveness 86 

In. — Inhabitiveness or Concentrativeness 89 

Ad. — Adhesiveness 91 

GOVERNING GROUP. 

Imp. — Imperativeness 92 

App. — Approbativeness 94 

Fm. — Firmness 98 

Eqt. — Equity or Conscientiousness 101 

CONFORMING GROUP. 

Sub. — Submissiveness or Reverence 105 

K— Kindness 108 

Imt. — Imitativeness 110 

Cre. — Credenciveness 114 

SCALE OF NUMBERS. 

The sizes of organs are usually represented by numbers — one 
being the lowest, seven the highest, and four the average or 
mean. According to this scale, if a head is perfectly balanced 
every organ will be marked four. If any organ is marked more 
than four it has more than an average share of influence in the 
mind, and if marked less than four it has less than an average 
share of influence. It is a great mistake to suppose that many 
high numbers indicate a superior character. The nearer all the 
organs come to being marked four the more perfect is the char- 
acter. When a head is well proportioned, a large and active 
brain indicates superiority. 



MYSTERIES 



HEAD AND HEART. 



PART FIRST -THE HEAD. 



Classification and Arrangement of the Phrene 
Organs. 

The first proceeding which is necessary in the crea- 
tion of a new science is the collection of its crude 
materials — its facts; the next is to make a correct 
classification. Those things that are in many essential 
particulars alike should be put into a class by them- 
selves. A science scarcely deserves the name until this 
task has been performed by its devotees. While the 
classification is imperfect the student is in continual 
danger of confounding together things that are unlike, 
and separating other things that nature has associated 
together. Dr. Gall laid the foundations of phrenology 
by discovering twenty-seven phrene organs; but he 
made no classification. His partner, Spurzheim, 
pointed out the fact that the intellectual organs consti- 
tute a distinct class, and that they differ in function 
from the emotional faculties. This distinction was 



6 MYSTEKIES OF HEAD AND HEAET. 

previously recognized by metaphysicians, but Spurz- 
heim demonstrated that the intellectual organs are 
grouped together by themselves in the anterior lobe 
of the cerebrum, while the emotional faculties occupy 
the rest of the brain. Spurzheim also distinguished 
the two highest intellectual organs from the others, 
and denominated them reflectives, while the others are 
perceptives. No one has questioned the propriety of 
this subdivision. 

Dr. Gall observed that the organs at the base of the 
brain are more peculiarly animal than the higher, and 
Spurzheim drew a line between what he considered the 
animal propensities and the higher iaculties; there is 
no such line in nature. This was the condition of the 
science when Spurzheim died in Boston in 1832, at 
which time I began the study of the subject In 1838 
I published a new system of phrenology, the principal 
novelty of which consisted in the natural classification 
and arrangement of the propensities or emotional 
faculties. I demonstrated that they consist of two 
great classes — the Ipseal and the Social; that one 
class is evidently designed to prompt the individual 
to preserve himself and advance his own personal 
interests, without reference to the wants or wishes of 
others; the other class is designed to multiply and pre- 
serve the species, and bind them together into societies. 

The importance of this division cannot be over 
valued. The moment we admit that nature has put 
in one group all the propensities that relate to the 
individual, and in another all those that relate to 
society, we are forced to acknowledge that no one can 
form a correct idea of the' functions of the organs who 
ignores this division. Any one who pretends to teach 



THE HEAD. 



phrenology, and rejects or neglects this division, does 
injustice to himself, to his pnpils, and to the science. 

The Ipseal class occupies the side of the head, and 
has its base in the middle lobe of the brain. The 
social class has its base at the posterior part of the 
brain, and extends along the middle line to the upper 
part of the forehead. 

The lower part of the brain has always been divided 
by anatomists into three lobes — the anterior, the 
middle, and the posterior. It is interesting now to 
learn the meaning of this natural division. The Intel- 
lectual class occupies the anterior 
lobe, the Ipseal the middle, and 
the Social the posterior. 

It is also a curious and inter- 
esting fact that the body may be 
divided into three departments. 
The anterior (including the hands 
and face) may be regarded as the 
Intellectual department; the mid- 
dle (including the digestive and 
respiratory organs) are Ipseal; 
and the posterior (including the 
reproductive organs) are Social. 
This relation becomes more strik- 
ing and obvious when we consider 
that the lowest organs of the 
posterior of the brain are related 
\ in function to the lowest parts of 
j the body, the lowest middle or- 
' gans of the brain are related to 
the middle parts of the body, and 
Fig. 3. the lowest anterior parts of the 




8 MYSTERIES OF HEAD AND HEART. 

brain to the hands and face, the anterior parts of the 
body. In other words, the anterior of both the body 
and the brain (D, Fig. 2) relate to the Intellect, the 
middle of the body and brain (I, Fig. 2) to the 
Ipseal functions, and the posterior of the body and 
brain (S, Fig. 2) the Social functions. But important 
as this division is, the succession or superaddition of 
the organs of each class is, if possible, still more so. 
I know of nothing in any science more remarkable. 

If Gall and Spurzheim, when they first promulgated 
phrenology, had pointed out this classification and 
succession of the organs, they would certainly have 
been accused of mapping the head and arranging the 
organs to adapt them to the requirements of a previ- 
ously formed theory. But the truth is that neither 
of these philosophers suspected that the organs which 
they discovered were susceptible of such an arrange- 
ment. If any additional argument were needed to 
establish the truth of phrenology, it is furnished by 
the fact that after Gall and Spurzheim were both dead, 
the crude materials which they brought to light are 
found to be capable of being formed into such a won- 
derfully harmonious system. 

Let us review each of the three classes separately, 
and observe the manner in which the higher organs 
are superadded to those immediately below them: 

ARRANGEMENT AND RELATIVE POSITIONS OF THE 
INTELLECTUAL ORGANS. 

The lowest intellectual organs are those situated 
near where the nose joins the forehead, at the base of 
the anterior lobe, near the middle line. The organs 
that cluster around this basilar central point have 



THE HEAD. 9 

the peculiarity that they relate to what may be 
denominated the individual qualities of things, while 
the other intellectual organs represent their relative 
qualities. Thus, form, size, weight, color, place, sound 
and motion may be possessed by a single object without 
any necessary reference to any other; but order, num- 
ber, comparison and causality imply several things 
and their relations to eacn other. The lowest animals 
may observe the individual qualities of things, but 
only the higher minds can fully understand their 
relations. 

ARRANGEMENT AND RELATIVE POSITIONS OF THE DPSEALS. 

The Ipseals are developed in five ranges or stories, 
one above the other. 1. The corporeal range relates 
to the bodily wants. Only two of them, Alimentive- 
ness and Sanativeness, have been fully established, 
though there must be several others in their vicinity 
that are yet to be discovered. There can be no doubt 
that all the corporeal organs of the Ipseal class that 
are undiscovered are near the two that are known. 
No sensible person would think of looking for them 
anywhere else. 2. Above the corporeal are the bel- 
ligerent organs. The struggle for existence resulting 
from the necessity of obtaining food requires those 
organs. 3. Above the belligerent are the prudential 
organs, which are rendered necessary by the previous 
existence of animals possessing the belligerent organs. 
4. The Industrial organs relate to the necessity of 
providing shelter and food for a coming winter. 5. 
The Improving range crowns this class and produces 
ingenuity, ornament and enterprise. There is nothing 



10 MYSTERIES OI? HEAD AND HEART. 

in the functions' of the organs of these five ranges that 
implies even the existence of society, or that tends to 
qualify their possessor for its enjoyments; they all 
relate to self. If they benefit society it is because the 
social organs are large enough to dominate over them 
and force them into subordination. 

ARRANGEMENT AND RELATIVE POSITIONS OF THE SOCIALS. 

The lowest animals manifest the lowest social fac- 
ulty; the next higher manifest some degree of the 
parental instinct; the attachment to particular places, 
and the tendency of the young to remain under the 
protection of a parent, implies a still higher social 
development; the gregarious instinct which binds 
several families together for mutual protection, and 
forces them to acknowledge one or more for leaders, 
is a still further advance, for it introduces general 
government and subordination. Imperativeness, Ap- 
probativeness, Firmness and Justice, as well as Obe- 
dience, Kindness and Imitativeness, will naturally be 
needed and developed under these circumstances; 
they will be more and more developed as the com- 
munity becomes more numerous and intelligent. The 
societies of bees, ants and beavers are illustrations of 
the fact that social institutions are not the results of 
human reason; they proceed from instinctive pro- 
pensities which are possessed in different degrees by 
different classes of animals. 

The order of arrangement and succession of the 
social organs in the human brain is the very order in 
which society must necessarily have required them. 

It should be particularly remarked that the social 
organs lowest in position are lowest in rank, and those 



THU HEAD. 11 

iii the mesial or middle line of the head are lower 
than the others adjoining. According to this rule, 
Amativeness is No. 1, Parentiveness 2, Inhabitive- 
ness 3, Adhesiveness 4, Imperativeness 5, Approba- 
tiveness 6, Firmness 7, Justice 8, Submissiveness 9, 
Kindness 10, Imitativeness 11, and Credenciveness 
12. The last is the highest in rank. Of all the social 
propensities, Credenciveness is the most peculiarly 
human; it is the propensity to receive communi- 
cations, and is therefore the basis of tradition, his- 
tory, religion and literature. Take these away and 
man would be a brute. Before the natural classifica- 
tion was understood, this important faculty was known 
as Wonder and Marvelousness, and its extraordinary 
influence upon human affairs was not understood. 
Imitativeness was also regarded as a mere mimicking 
and dramatic faculty ; whereas it is a powerful social 
element, and an important moral faculty. We imitate 
those whom we most reverence and admire: our mother 
tongue, our manners and fashions, and most of our 
work is learned by imitation. It is the basis of sym- 
pathy. The social character and influence of this 
important faculty has been overlooked on account of 
the erroneous classification which has been adopted. 
Even the propensity of Kindness or Benevolence has 
been but half understood. The truth is it tends to 
conciliate strangers and persons in whom we have but 
a general interest. The lower any social propensity 
is in rank the more limited is its sphere. The domes- 
tic socials relate only to the family, but Kindness 
relates to all creatures that can appreciate it. It is 
an interesting fact that Causality, the highest Intel- 



12 MYSTERIES OF HEAD AND HEART. 

lectual, Perfectiveness (Ideality), the highest Ipseal, 
and Credenciveness the highest Social, come together 
at the upper lateral part of the forehead where the 
heads of the lowest savages are most deficient. 



FUNCTIONS OF PHRENE ORGANS. 



THE INTELLECTUALS. 



PERCEPTIVES. 

OBSERVATION OR INDIVIDUALITY. 

"You see, indeed, but perceive not." — Isaiah. 

The faculty of observing the most ob- 
vious things in a cursory and general man- 
ner. Dr. Gall called it, very appropriately, 
"the spirit of observation." Practically, 
it is undoubtedly true that persons large at 
»this part and small in the other organs 
above and each side of it, are very observ- 
ing, though they may not understand what 
they observe, but I doubt this being a sin- 
gle faculty. It is probable that several of 
the lowest perceptives are very small, and 
are crowded together here. Combined with Eventual- 
ity, it gives the memory of facts and transactions. 
Those who have it small are in the habit of passing 
things in which they have no particular interest with- 
out noticing them. If such persons have the Reflec- 
tives large, they are prone to be too metaphysical, and 
though possessed of good reasoning faculties, they 
reason erroneously, because they have acquired but an 
imperfect knowledge of the facts. 

(13) 



14 MYSTERIES OF HEAD AND HEART. 

While I admit that persons who are large here are 
more practical and observing than those who are 
small, I am not convinced that there is a distinct 
faculty of the mind such as that which Spurzheim 
and Combe have defined under the name of Individ- 
uality. Combe says, "Individuals in whom it is 
large experience delight in becoming acquainted with 
objects, without reference to their uses or active or 
passive qualities." Again he says, " It gives the 
notion of the existence of substance, and forms that 
class of ideas represented by names when used with- 
out an objective, as man, rock, tree." I cannot admit 
that we ever have an idea of any substance without 
reference to its qualities. Every substance has a form 
and a size, and we cannot even imagine its existence 
witho7i.t these qualities. 

FLAVOR. 

"Who taught the nations of the field and wood 
To shun their poison and to choose their food." — Pope. 

Independent of phrenological observa- 
tion, we have quite as good reason for 
believing that there is in the brain an 
organ for perceiving flavor (including 
odor and savor), as in admitting an organ 
'of color that is related to sight, or an 
organ of weight, related to the sense of 
touch. In 1838, 1 called the attention of 
phrenologists to the fact that persons 
whose faces are prominent in that part 
Fi s- 4 - that is immediately under the eye and 
near the nose, possess an unusual power of discrim- 
ination in regard to the odor and savor of food and 




THE HEAD. 



15 





drink. It seems to, me that there is a part of the 
brain, just behind the convolution of the organ of 
words, that may give prominence to the bones under 
the eye, for the same reason that the word organ gives 
prominence to the eye itself. 

U ).». This faculty, says 

Dunglison, is capa- 
ble of being largely 
developed by culti- 
vation. The spirit- 
taster to extensive 
commercial estab- 
^»*^\ lishments exhibits 
i "^ the truth of this in 
a striking manner. 
He has, of course, in 
his vocation, not on- 
ly to taste numerous 
samples but to ap- 
Fi g . 6. preciate the age, 

strength, flavor and other qualities of each; yet 
the practiced individual is rarely wrong in his 
discrimination. Some persons can tell by the taste 
whether birds, put upon the table, are domesticated 
or wild, male or female. Dr. Kitchener, indeed, 
asserts that many epicures are capable of saying in 
what precise stretch of the Thames the salmon on 
the table has been caught. 

Figure 5 is Apollo, the Grecian classical ideal of the highest 
civilization and refinement, contrasted with Figure 6, a some- 
what exaggerated representation of the negro face. No one 
would hesitate long in deciding which of the two to prefer for 
the kitchen department. 



Fig. 5. 



16 MYSTEBIES OF HEAD AND HEAET. 

FOEM. 

" I knew him at a glance ! My father is not altered; 
The form that stands before me, falsifies 
No feature of the image that hath lived 
So long within me." — Coleridge. 

The faculty of judging concerning forms and remem- 
bering them. Dr. Gall named it the sense of persons. 
When large it gives width between the eyes. 

Spurzheim thinks that ideas of roughness and 
smoothness depend on Form. It is principally by 
means of Form that animals are capable of distin- 
guishing one object from another. A large develop 
ment of this organ also accounts for the extraordinary 
power which some persons possess, of remembering 
faces ; Cuvier, the celebrated Naturalist, could remem- 
ber for years, the forms of animals which he had seen, 
and could draw them from memory with great accu- 
racy. The talent for drawing is almost entirely depen- 
dent on this organ. When Language and Form are 
not in proportion to each other, persons can remember 
the names and not the faces, or vice versa, of their 
acquaintances. I knew a gentleman in Auburn, New 
York, who called into a store to see an acquaintance, 
but not finding him in, inquired of the clerk — "Is 
Mr. — Mr. — Mr. — r — r — you know who I mean, — is 
he in \ " " Oh yes," said the clerk, " I know who you 
mean; it is Mr. — Mr. — Mr. — r — r — No! he is not 
in," — and they parted in mutual embarrassment. Dr. 
Gall relates of himself, that he could not recollect a 
person who dined by his side, if in the afternoon he 
met him in the street. Dr. D., of Ann Arbor, Mich- 
igan, assured me, that it was to him a frequent source 
of embarrassment, that persons would come up to 



THE HEAD. 17 

him, and claim to be his intimate acquaintances, and 
he was ashamed to say he did not know that he had 
ever seen 'them before. 

Authors who have it large are prone to describe the 
configuration of the objects which they introduce, and 
in their works of fiction, 

" Imagination bodies forth the forms of things unknown." 

SIZE. 

" A boundless sea forevermore, 
Without a bottom or a shore." — Watts. 





Raphael— Fig. 7. Richard Baxter — Fig. 8. 

The faculty of measuring distances and magnitudes 
by the glance of the eye. It is one of the organs 
required in perspective drawing, and in judging of 
proportion. It is large, and Form also, in Milton, and 
he frequently manifests them in his writings. A good 
instance is his description of sin and death: 

Figure 7, the brow of Raphael, one of the greatest of artists 
in regard to form and outline. Observe the width of the part 
where the nose and forehead join; this indicates a large devel- 
opment of the organ of Size. The organ of Form is also very 
large in Raphael, and is indicated by .the uncommon space 
between the eye and the nose. 

Figure 8 is the brow of the Rev. Richard Baxter, a celebrated 
and pious metaphysical divine, who regarded all the uses of this 
world and its enjoyments as " stale, flat and unprofitable," com- 
pared with the glories of the things that are invisible. 
2 



16 MYSTERIES OF HEAD AND HEART. 






" The one seemed woman to the waist, and fair, 
But ended foul in many a scaly fold, 
Voluminous and vast. * * * * 
* * * * The other shape, 
If shape it might be called — that shape had none 
Distinguishable in member, joint or limb, 
Or substance might be called that shadow seemed, 
For each seemed either. 

Again, he describes Satan: 

" As far removed from God and light of heaven, 
As from the centre thrice to the utmost pole. 

Prone on the flood, extending long and large, 
Lay floating many a rood. 

Collecting all his might, dilated stood, 
Like Teneriffe " Atlas, unremoved ; 
His stature reaped the sky, and on his crest 
Sat horror plumed." 

Nearly all poets have the organ that produces 
exageration (Credenciveness) large, and there is noth- 
ing that they exagerate more frequently than magni- 
tudes. 

WEIGHT. 

"And earth, self-balanced, on her centre hung." — Milton. 

This is the perception of 
weight, and the sense of force 
and resistance. Animals that 
are very low in the scale mani- 
Flg ' 9 ' fest this faculty with as much 

skill as the most profound philosopher. The cater- 
pillar travels to the end of a limb, and extends itself 
as far as it can reach, and if it finds nothing to rest 
upon returns the way it came, but never loses its 
balance. 



THE HEAD. 19 

The nymphs of water moths, commonly called cod- 
bait, cover themselves with pieces of wood or gravel. 
It is necessary that they should keep in equilibrium 
with the water, and when they are too light they add 
to themselves a piece of gravel, and when too heavy 
a piece of wood. 

I have uniformly found this organ large in those 
mechanics and artists whose success depends upon 
their faculty of bringiDg force to bear with skill, pre- 
cision and delicacy. It is large upon authors who 
describe, in a natural manner, the effect of force. 

"And hark! The river, bursting every mound, 
Down the vale thunders ; and with wasteful sway- 
Uproots the groves, and rolls the s T [ tered rocks away." 

— Beattie. 

The organ, when large, gives depth and an over- 
hanging appearance to the brow near the nose, as 
seen in the brow of Washington (Fig. 9). Watt, 
Brunell, and other great practical engineers, have the 
same development. I have seen many persons who 
could sing well, but could not touch the piano with 
proper delicacy and skill. Men have the organ much 
larger than women, and though women are the better 
vocalists, and a hundred women to one man learn 
the use of the piano, the best performers upon that 
instrument are men. Machinists, blacksmiths, rail- 
road engine drivers, coachmen, and all men engaged 
in employments requiring them to exert, to guide or 
to regulate force, require this faculty. 



20 



MYSTERIES OF HEAD AND HEART. 



LOCALITY OE DIKECTIOK 

'There is a power whose care 

Teaches thy way along that pathless coast, 
The desert and illimitable air, 
Lone wandering but not lost." — Bryant to a water-fowl 

This may be defined 
to be the perception of 
the direction of objects. 
It is largely developed 
in the heads of all cel- 
ebrated navigators, trav- 
elers and geographers. 
Migratory animals man- 
ifest it in a much greater 
degree than man. It is 
very large in James Fen- 
nimore Cooper, and his 
"Pilot," and other nauti- 
cal works, afford admira- 
ble illustrations of it. 




Americus Vespucius — Vig. 10. 



His hero is represented as steering the vessel among 
rocks and shoals, through a thousand dangers that 
seem each moment to increase in magnitude; but 
with a firm and decided voice, and a calm spirit, he 
gives each necessary order, as with a skillful hand he 
guides the noble ship in safety. 

The head of Americus illustrates several peculiar traits. 
His forehead indicates a very observing, practical, orderly char- 
acter. His large neck, and strongly marked face indicate energy 
and strength. The back of the head indicates powerful domestic 
affections ; but the upper back part of the head shows- a great 
deficiency of self-will and firmness of purpose. 



THE HEAD. 



21 




Fig. 11. 

by habit. 



WOKDS OE LANGUAGE. 

"With words of learned length and thundering sound, 
Amazed the gazing rustics ranged around."— Goldsmith. 

This organ does not give the love 
of talking, nor does this alone bestow 
the gift of speaking with fluency. 
Those who have it large, remember 
and use unusual words, such as they 
have seen in books, and which are 
mostly used only by literary and pro- 
fessional characters. Those who have 
it small are forced to use common ex- 
pressions which have become familiar 
They cannot readily acquire a literary and 
classical style, nor do they easily learn a foreign or a 
dead language. This faculty is much more easily cul- 
tivated in early youth than afterwards. It is very 
important for parents and teachers to understand this, 
especially in those cases in which the organ is small 
in children who are otherwise intellectual. Math- 
ematics are learned more readily when the mind is 
more mature, but language is best acquired in child- 
hood, by imitation and habit. The organ crowds the 
eye downward and outward when large. 

Fig. 11. This is the face and head of a gentleman with whom 
I am well acquainted. He keeps a hotel, and is an excellent land- 
lord in every respect but one ; he can recollect the names of 
scarcely any of his guests. A wag tells an amusing story of him 
that one day, after dinner, he forgot his own name, and went out 
and looked at his sign to refresh his memory. But, in another re- 
spect, his memory is extraordinary. He can recollect and describe 
what he has had for dinner each day for several weeks. Observe 
his deep sunken eye and the prominence of the bone beneath. 



22 MYSTERIES OF HEAD AND HEART. 

Language is the perception of the manifestations of 
mind. The mental process is concealed from observa- 
tion beneath the silent and mystic convolutions of the ' 
brain. ISTot so the manifestations of mind — the con- 
tractions of the muscles, producing voice, and the 
motions of the limbs and features; these enable ani- 
mals to indicate their thoughts and feelings in such a 
manner that other animals, possessing the same organ- 
ization, readily understand them. Animals do not, 
like men, connect by a process of reasoning the mo- 
tions and sounds or other signs of ideas with the ideas 
themselves in which the signs originate; but they are 
endowed with an instinctive perception which is per- 
fectly adapted to certain animal motions and sounds, 
so that, as soon as they are born, they can understand 
the signs of the mother inviting them to feed or warn- 
ing them of danger. This view of Language is in 
agreement with its location at the base of the brain, 
near the root of Observation. It must certainly be 
possessed by all animals that have any communication 
with their own species, or attend to the wants of their 
young. Those phrenologists, therefore, who consider 
Language peculiar to man, and rank it next in dignity 
to the reflective faculties, cannot be well acquainted 
with the natural history of animals, and they must 
also have overlooked the situation of the organ in the 
brain. 

Man uses artificial language for the same reason 
that he uses artificial clothes, tools, and a thousand 
other things which his superior reasoning power has 
enabled him to invent. Having invented an artificial 
language, it is the organ under consideration which 
enables him to learn it with facility and remember it 



THE HEAD. 23 

with ease. It is plaiif that it requires more judgment 
to understand artificial than natural language, as the 
one is directly adapted to our faculty of Language, 
and the other is adapted to our faculty of Language 
combined with the reflecting powers that invented it. 
This is the reason why animals and some idiots can- 
not learn artificial language, although they readily 
understand natural language; the latter requires no 
effort of reflection, whereas the former originated in 
human invention, and can be understood only by 
human judgment. 

It is astonishing with what facility some writers and 
speakers pour forth a flood of indefinite words upon 
a subject which might be expressed in a few short 
sentences. On the other hand, we see individuals 
whose gigantic intellects survey at a single glance the 
whole circle of the sciences, and yet in a sudden emer- 
gency cannot find language to express themselves 
intelligibly upon the most familiar and ordinary top- 
ics. But a distinction must be understood between a 
facility of conception and a facility of expression. 
This will be explained under Comparison. 

COLOR 

" A thousand odors rise, 
Breathed up from blossoms of a thousand dyes." — Bryant. 

The faculty of perceiving 
nice shades, tints and hues of 
color. Painters usually have 
it large; but in ordinary per- 
Titian— Fig. 12. gong j^ cannot -be pronounced 

Figure 12, the brow of Titian, the celebrated painter, who 
excelled in the coloring of his pictures. Observe how his brow 
arches in the middle, where the organ is located. 





24 MYSTERIES OF HEAD AND HEART. 

upon with confidence. When very deficient persons 
do not notice the colors of flowers nor of dresses, and 
they often fail to distinguish one color or one shade 
from another. 

OKDEE. 

" Order is heaven's first law." — Pope. 

The faculty of noticing the 
succession and arrangement of 
things in nature, in business, or 
in art. When large the person 
Fi s- 13 - is neat and orderly without in- 

tending to be so, or even being conscious of it. When 
small there is a tendency to neglect the proper arrange- 
ment of things. It requires great care and perse- 
verance to acquire orderly habits if they are not nat- 
ural. 

The mechanical animals manifest Order in a most 
remarkable manner. Who has not admired the regu- 
larity with which the spider arranges the thread of his 
web, the bee the cells of his honeycomb, or the - bird 
the materials of her nest? 

Those who have the organ very large, are apt, uncon- 
sciously, to arrange in order whatever material objects 
occupy their attention. A retail merchant, for instance, 
has his attention (his Observation,) continually occu- 
pied with the numerous articles that constitute his 
stock ; and, if he has order very large, he will instinc- 
tively and unconsciously arrange and keep them in 
order; yet he may neglect his garden or his library, 
because his attention is directed to another subject of 
all-absorbing interest; as soon, however, as his mind 
is relieved from business, and he has leisure to attend 



THE HEAD. 25 

to his garden or his library, he will manifest the same 
degree of order there that he previously did in his 
store. This will explain the apparent anomaly which 
some persons present, who are remarkably orderly in 
some things and neglectful in others. I know some 
students who are very neat and orderly in regard to 
their papers and books, but careless of their personal 
appearance, while others are careless of every thing 
but their dress ; this is all easily explained by the rela- 
tive development of Intellect and Approbativeness, 
and the circumstances which have directed their atten- 
tion to different subjects. 

Good clerks and accountants have this large; and 
it is of the greatest importance to merchants, especially 
if they have it small themselves, to select assistants 
who have it large. It is also large in women, and 
they are proverbial for their habits of putting things 
"to rights." 

Order must not be confounded with system, which 
is the result of reflection. I know many individuals 
who are very systematic — they plan well, but they 
need an assistant continually at their elbows to execute 
their plans in an orderly manner. I know others, who 
are remarkable for order, but are totally incapable of 
conceiving a complicated and systematic plan. 

NUMBEB. 

" The stars are numberless, resplendent, set 
As symbols of the countless, countless years 
That make eternity. — HilUwuse. 

This is the faculty of arithmetical calculation; 
combined with order it gives book-keeping talent. 
"When large it bestows readiness in counting and 




26 MYSTERIES OF HEAD AND HEART. 

reckoning; combined with reflection it gives mathe- 
matical ability. When deficient, it is difficult to excel 
in any business constantly re- 
quiring it; if not very small it 
can be cultivated, so that this 
deficiency will riot be severely 

Lagrange — Fig. 14. ielt. 

" The special function of this faculty seems to be to give the 
conception of numbers and their relations, including arithmetic, 
algebra and logarythms, but geometry does not belong to it." — 
Combe. 

I would here respectfully point out an error into 
which some good phrenologists have fallen, in sup- 
posing that Order should be preceded by Number, in 
the arrangement of these organs. Mr. Combe, 397th 
page, says: "Order supposes a plurality of objects, 
but one may have ideas about a number of things, 
and their qualities, without considering them in any 
order whatever." And he accordingly ranks Number 
before Order. Spurzheim also says: "The idea of 
order supposes plurality, but number may exist with- 
out order." Now I acknowledge that there cannot be 
order without number; but it does not follow that we 
must perceive number before we perceive order. 

Let me ask what can there be without number; do 
not the five senses, and Observation — ■ does not the 
organ of Color, adapted as it is to the seven primary 
colors, suppose the existence of plurality? Does not 
our very existence, " suppose a plurality of objects," 
previously existing? 

Figure 14. The brow of Lagrange. He had both order and 
number large. We seldom find number large and order small. 
When number is large it causes the brow to extend outward 
toward the ear. 






THE HEAD. 27 

But Mr. Combe sajs : " We may have ideas about 
a number of things without considering them in any 
order whatever." I reply, so may the animals, that 
are destitute of both Order and Number; but all ani- 
mals do not have ideas of several things of the same 
appearance at once; they certainly have ideas of a 
number of things, but not as numbers. I once knew 
an idiot, who, although he could not count ten, yet, 
out of his father's flock of fifty sheep, if one was 
missing, he was always the first to discover it; for 
he knew every one of them by some peculiar mark; 
and he had names for them expressive of their pecul- 
iarities, such as crook-horn, smut-face, etc.; but he 
could not distinguish the difference between a lot of 
thirteen eggs and another lot of a dozen. Again I 
reply, we may also have ideas about the order of 
things, without having any idea of their number. 
This same idiot, who could not count ten, was yet 
extremely fond of order. Dr. Spurzheim mentions 
that the Sauvage de 1' Avignon at Paris, though an 
idiot in a very high degree, cannot bear to see a chair, 
or any other object, out of its place. He also saw, in 
Edinburgh, a girl who in many respects was idiotic, 
but in whom the love of order was very active. She 
avoided her brother's apartment in consequence of 
the confusion that prevailed in it. 

The lower animals manifest order in the most per- 
fect and astonishing manner, but they manifest num- 
ber very imperfectly. Spurzheim says : " I am not 
certain whether this faculty (Number,) exists in ani- 
mals." Combe also remarks: "It seems difficult to 
determine whether the faculty exists in the lower ani- 
mals or not." This fact alone would seem to decide 



28 MYSTERIES OF HEAD AJNTD HEAKT. 

the question of precedence in favor of Order. Anoth- 
er important fact is, that in ordinary transactions we 
always use order before number. When we wish to 
count a number of articles, we arrange them in some 
order, that we may perform the operation with greater 
facility; for if the articles are in confusion, we find it 
next to impossible to count them. These two organs 
are of the greatest importance to merchants. Those 
who have the organ of Number large, can compute, 
without using the slate, with a rapidity and accuracy 
which to others is incomprehensible. This faculty 
does not give the ability to solve difficult arithmetical 
problems; it only gives the power to perform with 
rapidity and accuracy any operation in addition, sub- 
traction, multiplication or division; but it must be 
combined with higher powers to produce skill in the 
higher and more difficult branches of mathematics. 
Zerah Colburn, the youth who astonished the world 
with this talent, was but an ordinary mathematician; 
and accordingly his organ of Number was very large, 
but Causality moderate. Both Order and Number 
are large in the bust of Washington, and his whole 
life was in harmony with this fact: In the papers in 
his own hand-writing which he has left behind, though 
very voluminous, every i is dotted, every t crossed, 
and scarce a blot to be found upon them. His accounts 
were kept in the most regular manner, and perfectly 
correct. 

This organ is large in the bust of Alexander Ham- 
ilton, and in Lagrange, the greatest of French math- 
ematicians. 




THE HEAD. 29 

IfvTEOTUALITY. 

" Sit at the feet of history — through the night 
Of years the steps of virtue she shall trace, 
And show the earlier ages." — Bryant. 

This faculty perceives action, motion, 
change. It is the foundation of the tal- 
ent for relating events, narratives and 
anecdotes in all their details. It is large 
in children; they are never weary of 
hearing stories. It is large in historical 
painters who represent objects in action ; 
Hogarth is a good instance. Dr. Gall 
named this the organ of educability, be- 
cause those young persons who have it 
Pitt— Fig. io. ] ar g e aC quire general information easily. 
He also thought, with Camper and Lavater, that 
animals are tamable in proportion to the fullness 
of this part. It is certain that tame and tamable ani- 
mals are fuller in the center of the forehead than wild, 
untamable ones; but I suspect that the conforming 
social organs of Kindness and Submissiveness produce 
the greater part of the fullness in these animals. 

Figure 15. The forehead of Pitt is remarkable. The organ 
of Observation (d) is small ; Comparison (c) is only average, but 
Eventuality (e) is very prominent. 

TIME. 

" To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow 
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day, 
To the last syllable of recorded time." — Shakspeare. 

Spurzheim proposed this organ, but practical phre- 
nologists are not yet satisfied that it is correctly 
located. It is still merely a candidate which may 
yet be rejected. Mr. Combe remarks that " the power 



30 MYSTERIES OF HEAD AND HEART. 

of conceiving time, and of remembering circum- 
stances connected by no link but the relation in which 
they stand to each other in chronology, and also the 
power of observing time in performing music, is very 
different in different individuals." This organ cannot 
be considered as established. It is located between 
Eventuality and Tunefulness. 



REFLECTIYES. 



COMPARISON. 

" Look at this picture and at this." — Shakspeare. 

This is the faculty of comparing things 
and ideas, assorting them, and distinguish- 
ing the like from the unlike. It perceives 
differences, resemblances, analogies and con- 
trasts. It gives the talent for classification 
in science, and for illustration by compari- 
son in speech and in literature. It gives 
birth to allegories, parables, metaphors and 
other figures of speech. It gives to busi- 
ness men quick practical judgment. They 
compare the matter before them with what 

Figure 16. The forehead of Moore, the Irish poet, represents 
a large class of persons of all professions who are remarkable 
for quickness and acuteness of understanding, and skill in illus- 
tration and expression, but who are not distinguished for the 
variety and extent of their learning. Comparison (c), and Ob- 
servation (d) are large, while Eventuality (e) is depressed. This 
forehead is greatly in contrast with that of Pitt. 




THE HEAD. 31 

they have previously known, and thus judge accord- 
ing to experience. When small the judgment is slow, 
and the person seems stupid. When he talks he fails 
to state and illustrate his ideas clearly or popularly; 
he is unfit for a place where immediate decision is 
required. 

Almost every object or subject which can occupy 
the mind belongs to a class to which it bears more or 
less analogy; and it is the function of this faculty to 
compare all our perceptions together, and perceive 
their resemblances and differences, and the classes to 
which they belong. It harmonizes all our percep- 
tions and perceives the agreement among them. 
If a new object is presented "to us, Comparison imme- 
diately compares all that we know concerning it with 
every thing else within our recollection, in order to 
know to what class it belongs ; for instance, if a new 
phrenological organ is discovered in the brain, this 
faculty would compare it with the organs already 
known and discover whether it belongs to the Ipseal, 
Social or Intellectual class. 

If all the perceptives below Comparison are large, 
and this organ is also large, the individual will pos- 
sess great power of discrimination — will be capable 
of making nice distinctions, or conceiving striking 
contrasts. When he is explaining any difficult sub- 
ject he will illustrate it by comparison ; he will dis- 
cover analogies between things which to the common 
observer appear totally dissimilar; his language will 
abound with figures of speech brought together from 
all quarters of the explored universe; from the heathen 
mythology, the history of individuals, of nations, of 
animals, and vegetables — science, literature and the 



32 MYSTERIES OF HEAD AND HEART. 

arts — every thing under the sun will be pressed into 
his service to adorn, amplify, or illustrate his pro- 
ductions. 

The talent for public speaking is very dependent 
upon this faculty. After a plain and simple statement 
of the case has been made, many speakers find a great 
difficulty in dwelling longer upon the subject; even 
though Language may be large, they find it difficult 
to continue their remarks from a want of interesting 
matter which is related to the question. Let now a 
speaker with large Comparison rise, and he immedi- 
ately begins to present the subject in a new light, and 
to refer to analogous cases; or, if he knows no such 
cases, he supposes some to suit his purpose; and, if he 
is artful, he will suppose cases in which the audience 
feel a deep interest, thus enlisting their feelings 
warmly upon a subject which before was a matter 
of indifference to them. 

CAUSALITY. 

" Observe how system into system runs." — Pope. 

This is the faculty of perceiving the causes and 
effects — the natural connections and dependencies 
of things and facts — tracing things and events back, 
step by step, to their origin, and forward to their con- 
sequences. It is the principal but not the only ele- 
ment in profound reasoning. Combined with Obser- 
vation it gives philosophical talent; combined with 
Number it bestows mathematical ability. It is depend- 
ent for facts upon the perceptives, and if they are defi- 
cient in development or cultivation, this faculty arrives 
at erroneous conclusions. When very small the rea- 



THE HEAD. 



33 




Gibbon— Fig. 17. 



soning is superficial^ and the person is only capable 
of practicing what superior minds have originated. 

That cause which immediately pre- 
cedes an effect is called the immedi- 
ate cause, and all the other links in 
the chain of causation are remote 
causes. So. also those effects which 
immediately follow a cause are called 
immediate effects, and all others are 
remote effects; it is the function of 
the faculty of Causality to perceive 
the relations among phenomena which 
constitute cause and effect. 
It perceives the dependence of one thing upon 
another, of one event upon another, or of one phe- 
nomena of any kind upon some other. Thus it per- 
ceives the dependence of the rivers upon their trib- 
utary streams; the dependence of the streams upon 
the springs; of the springs upon the rains; of the 
rains upon the clouds; of the clouds upon evapora- 
tion ; of evaporation upon heat ; of heat upon the sun, 
and the dependence of all these phenomena upon the 
laws of gravitation. 

It perceives the dependence of known things and 
facts upon those that are unknown — thus Columbus 
perceived the dependence of one side of the earth 

Figure 17. The head of Gibbon, the philosophical historian 
of the causes of the decline and fall of the Roman empire, 
affords a good illustration of this organ. Below Causality, Tune- 
fulness and Order appear to be small, and above it Credencive- 
ness is quite deficient. The position of the eye indicates a good 
development of the organ of Words. He was a splendid writer, 
ornate and profound, but skeptical. 
3 



34 MYSTERIES OF HEAD AND HEART. 

•which was known, upon the other which was unknown; 
Cuvier perceived the dependence of the forms of ani- 
mal's bones upon their dispositions and habits, and 
thus was enabled to ascertain the nature of the un- 
known animal by inspecting the fossil remains of a 
single bone. Gall discovered the dependence of cer- 
tain powers of mind upon certain portions of the 
brain. 

Causality perceives that many strange phenomena 
which superstitious minds have ascribed to supernat- 
ural powers depend upon natural causes. 

In mathematics, a certain number or quantity being 
known, this faculty perceives the necessary existence 
of other numbers or quantities. Combined with Com- 
parison and Observation, it invents and originates 
improvements in the arts. We observe the operations 
of nature, and discover the causes upon which they 
depend; we observe the operations of art, and com- 
pare them with those of nature, and by adopting the 
natural process we improve the eifect. 

Sir H. Davy's safety lamp originated in his observ- 
ing that a metalic net prevented the passage of name 
by cooling it, while it allowed the passage of light; 
observing also that in coal mines fatal explosions were 
frequently caused by the name of the lamps commu- 
nicating with the gas, his Comparison perceived the 
analogy between the two cases, and his Causality ena- 
bled him to remove the cause of the explosion while 
he retained the cause of light, by constructing a lamp 
surrounded with fine metalic net work. 

All useful inventions must originate in observation; 
but it is necessary to compare the facts which have 
been observed, and also perceive their connections and 



THE HEAD. - 35 

dependences. The knowledge of facts alone would 
not distinguish man from other animals; and on the 
other hand, however profound the reflections, they are 
useless unless based upon correct observations. I 
have seen many visionary characters who were con- 
tinually dreaming of improvements, and who really 
seemed to manifest much originality of mind, but 
could never bring any of their plans into successful 
operation; the reason is, they were deficient in that 
practical talent which depends on the lower range of 
perceptives; had these organs been large, they would 
have been able to perceive the practical facts necessary 
to the execution of their plans; or else to discover 
some facts which rendered them impracticable. The 
dependence of the upper organs upon the lower, and 
tho great importance of attending to- the proportions 
which the different parts of the forehead bear to each 
other, cannot be too much insisted on; but it needs 
no further explanation in this place. 

It is common for those who have but a moderate 
degree of Causality to think that there must be some 
mistake in their case, because, they will tell you, they 
are habitually inquiring into the cause of every thing. 
I reply, so do children, so do all except idiots; but it 
does not follow that Causalitv must be large. The 
difference between a large Causality and a small one 
is that the latter is satisfied with knowing immediate 
causes, but the former traces out remote causes ; — the 
large organ delights in tracing a long chain of causes 
and effects, and perceiving the connection and depend- 
ence of a great number of links, — -the small organ 
only delights in tracing a few links, and can easily 
comprehend their connection and dependence; but 



36 MYSTERIES OF HEAD AND HEART. 

they are satisfied with this, and do not voluntarily 
and habitually proceed further. If circumstances 
compel them to urge their Causality to its utmost, it 
soon becomes an irksome task; and if thrown into 
competition with a large Causality they are easily 
overpowered. 






IPSEAL OR SELF-RELATIVE 
PROPENSITIES. 



CORPOREAL RANGE. 



RELATED TO THE PRESERVATION OF THE BODY. 



ALIMEOTIYENESS. 

"Give us this day our daily bread." — Lord's Prayer. 

The propensity to obtain 
food and attend to it habit- 
ually, even to the neglect 
of all other pleasures. This 
propensity, like all others 
that are dependent upon 
the body for their excite- 
ment, varies in its activity 
as the condition of the body 
varies. When very small, 
especially in the young, 
the constitution is seldom 
strong. The organ, when 
large, gives width to the 
head just before the ears, as in Thomas Paine. 

This is the propensity to take food and drink. The 
new born infant, the most helpless of all creatures, 
without any previous teaching, makes the requisite 
exertions to obtain aliment, and it is evidently inrpel- 

(37) 




Pain? —Fig. 18. 



38 MYSTERIES OF HEAD A1STD HEART. 

led to do so by a power inherent in its nature. This 
propensity is absolutely necessary to animals even in 
the first hours of existence; and they manifest it then 
in as much perfection as they do after years of expe- 
rience. Many instances are on record in which this 
propensity lias been diseased, while the others were in 
health. Plutarch relates that Brutus, after the death 
of Caesar, when advancing to the attack of a city, was 
seized with such an irresistible desire to eat, that he 
was obliged to halt three days to recover. Medical 
books contain numerous reports of cases which estab- 
lish beyond all doubt the existence of this propensity, 
and all authors now agree in referring it to the brain. 
Dr. Andrew Combe, physician to the King of Bel- 
gium, in his admirable work on the Physiology of 
Digestion, makes the following appropriate remarks: 

"The sensation of hunger is commonly referred to 
the stomach, and that of thirst to the upper part of 
the throat and back of the mouth; and correctly 
enough to this extent, that a certain • condition of the 
stomach and throat tends to produce them. But, in 
reality, the sensations themselves, like all other men- 
tal affections and emotions, have their seat in the 
brain, to which a sense of the condition of the stom- 
ach is conveyed through the medium of the nerves. 

"'The relation thus shown to subsist between the 
stomach and the brain, enables us, in sbme measure, 
to understand the influence which mental emotion and 
earnest intellectual occupation exert over the appetite. 
A man in perfect health, sitting down to table with an 
excellent appetite, receives a letter announcing an un- 
expected calamity, and instantly turns away with loath- 
ing from the food which, a moment before, he was 



THE HEAD. 39 

prepared to eat with relish; while another, who, under 
the fear of some misfortune, comes to table indifferent 
about food, will eat with great zest on his ' mind being 
relieved,' as the phrase goes, by the receipt of pleas- 
ing intelligence. In such cases no one will imagine 
that the calamity destroys the appetite otherwise than 
through the medium of the brain. Sometimes the 
feeling of loathing and disgust is so intense as not 
only to destroy appetite, but to induce sickness and 
vomiting — a result which depends so closely on the 
state of the brain that it is often induced even by me- 
chanical injuries of that organ. 

" The most common source, however, of the errors 
into which we are apt to fall in taking appetite as our 
only guide, is unquestionably the confounding of 
appetite with taste, and continuing to eat for the grat- 
ification of the latter, long after the former is satisfied. 
In fact the whole science of a skillful cook is expended 
in producing this willing mistake on our part; and 
he is considered decidedly the best artiste whose dishes 
shall recommend themselves most irresistibly to the 
callous palate of the gourmand, and excite on it such 
a sensation as shall at least remind him of the envi- 
able excellence of a natural appetite. If we were wil- 
ling to limit the office of taste to its proper sphere, 
and to cease eating when appetite expressed content, 
indigestion would be a much rarer occurrence in civil- 
ized communities than it is observed to be. 

" Yiewed, then, in its proper light, appetite is to be 
regarded as kindly implanted in our nature for the 
express end of proportioning the supply of nourish- 
ment to the wants of the system; and if ever it mis- 
leads us, the fault is not in its unfitness for its object, 



40 MYSTERIES OF HEAD AND HEART. 

but in the artificial training which it receives at our 
own hands. When we attend to its real dictates, we 
eat moderately, and at such intervals of time as the 
previous exercise and other circumstances render 
necessary; and in so doing we reap a reward in the 
daily enjoyment of the pleasure which attends the 
gratification of healthy appetite. But if we err, either 
by neglecting the timely warning which it gives, or 
by eating more than the system requires, mischief is 
sure to follow." 

SAISTATIYENESS OE YITATIYENESS. 

" Infirmity doth still neglect all office 
Whereunto our health is bound : we are not ourselves 
When nature, being oppressed, commands the mind 
To suffer with the body." — Shakespare. 

This is the propensity to preserve the constitution 
from injury. No faculty is more universally or more 
plainly manifested. Were it not for this, animals, 
and even men, would sacrifice their limbs and their 
lives without making an effort to save them. I think 
the organ is smaller in women than in men, and this 
accounts for the apparent firmness with which they 
endure pain. They do not suffer from it as intensely, 
and can, therefore, bear it with more patience and sub- 
missiveness than men. 

I find, as a general rule, this organ is larger the 
more vigorous and robust the constitution. It is 
larger in the carniverous than in the herbiverous ani- 
mals. It is larger in children than in adults. It 
would, however, be obviously unphilosophical to name 
it the organ of pain, as this is only the disagreeable 
affection of a propensity, the proper gratification of 
which yields the opposite feeling, which is denomi- 



THE HEAD. 41 

nated bodily ease. The proper inquiry is, what was 
the design of the Creator in bestowing this propen- 
sity? And this naturally brings us to the conclusion 
that it is the organ of Sanitiveness, or the propensity 
to protect and preserve the integrity of the bodily con- 
stitution, to prevent disease, injury and destruc- 
tion. Children and animals, ignorant of this design, 
make use of it instinctively when roused by the feeling 
of pain which it produces when disagreeably affected. 
If these views of pain are correct, the opinion of the 
poet, that the beetle which we tread upon, 

" In corporal suffering, finds 
A pang as great as when a giant dies," 

may be again revived, notwithstanding the belief of 

physiologists that the pain which an animal suffers is 

in proportion to the number and development of his 

sensitive nerves. 

CANDIDATE OKGAJSTS. 

In the engraved bust it will be observed that 
there are five places indicated by the five first letters 
of the alphabet, and that each has an interrogation 
mark before it, implying that the function of the 
part is questionable. Theoretical considerations and 
analogy seem to render it certain that all the faculties 
which these candidate organs are supposed to repre- 
sent really exist in the brain; but it by no means fol- 
lows that their locations have been discovered. Even 
if one observer should succeed in discovering the 
actual location of an organ, it would probably require 
half a century to obtain the assent of the other phre- 
nologists. A phreno-ethnological society is greatly 
needed to collect, compare and discuss the observa- 



42 MYSTERIES OF HEAD AND HEAET. 

tions that are now being made all over the world, and 
to produce unanimity of opinion concerning the re- 
sults of their researches. 

There are very serious difficulties in the way of 
determining the functions of organs at the base of 
the brain. 1. Their positions are such that they pro- 
duce but little effect upon the prominences of the skull 
in places where it can be examined. This objection 
would, at first, seem to be insurmountable. But every 
practical phrenologist knows that the development of 
the organ of Words is one of the most easily exam- 
ined and determined, yet the cerebral organ itself .is 
situated directly over the eyeball, and its development 
is only indicated by the fact that it crowds the eye 
downward and outward. So also the organ of IS um- 
ber is very small, and lies beneath the bone at the 
outer part of the brow, so that it would at first seem 
impracticable to determine its development; indeed 
it really does require great care and considerable expe- 
rience, yet if we compare half a dozen merely literary 
men with the same number of successful financiers or 
traders, the difference will be obvious and convincing. 

Alimentiveness and Sanativeness would seem to be 
liable to the same objection, and they doubtless are 
difficult to determine, yet all phrenologists are agreed 
concerning them. 

In a work that I published in 1838 I remarked that 
persons whose faces are prominent at the place mark- 
ed a? in the engraved bust, excelled in judging con- 
cerning the qualities of food and drink, and I named 
it Chemicaiity, or H'la/oor. The correctness of my 
observation was generally admitted, but it was sup- 
posed that the prominence merely indicated that the 



THE HEAD. 43 

external organs of smell were greatly developed, and 
not that the greater or less development of the brain 
produced the difference. 

In the same work I proposed an organ of the pro- 
pensity of Pneumativeness (marked c? in the bust), 
related to breathing and ventilation, situated imme- 
diately before Alimentiveness. 

In another work, published in 1857, I stated that I 
had observed that persons who were broad in that 
part of the head just under Constructiveness (see the 
engraved bust b?), manifested a propensity of Ther- 
mativeness — that is, they were living thermometers — 
their houses, their clothing and their conduct showed 
that they acted habitually with reference to the cli- 
mate and the changes of the weather. It is large in 
the Esquimaux and small in JSegroes. 

In the same work I mentioned an observation that 
persons largely developed behind the ear, just under 
Combativeness, manifested a propensity which may 
be called Excretiveness. They seemed to delight in 
talking about excrementive subjects, to which refined 
people only allude as a matter of necessity. In asy- 
lums for the insane I have found several patients 
whose principal monomania was upon this subject. 

The organ marked e? in the engraved bust seems to 
be related, in some way, to locomotion. This has been 
indicated, not so much by the observations of phrenol- 
ogists as by the experiments of physiologists. I sus- 
pect that it is the propensity to maintain Equilib- 
rium. It occupies the central part of the cerebellum^, 
while the lateral parts are related to Amativeness. 

I am also confident that there is an organ of the 
corporeal range related to sleep — Somniferousness — 



44 



MYSTEEIES OF HEAD AND HEAET. 



but I have thus far been unable to locate it to my own 
satisfaction. The only observation of any value that 
I have been able to make in regard to this propensity, 
is the fact that persons who are very narrow through 
the head, in the corporeal range, sleep but little, and 
have weak constitutions. This is especially true of 
precocious children. 



BELLIGERENT KANGE. 

RELATED TO AGGRESSIVE AND OFFENSIVE OPERATIONS. 




Fig. 19. 



DESTRUCTIVENESS. 

" Rise, Peter, kill and eat." — Acts. 

When this organ was first an- 
nounced it was called the organ 
of Murder, and a thrill of hor- 
ror was excited at the very sug- 
gestion that the Creator had 
bestowed upon ail mankind . a 
propensity which characterizes 
tigers and murderers. Dr. Gall 
himself, when he first noticed 
the resemblance between the 



Figure 19. A boy named Armstrong murdered a girl in a very- 
shocking manner, without any motive that could be discovered. 
For this offense he was confined in the Auburn State Prison. 
His head was so peculiar that I requested an artist to sketch an 
outline of his head. His Destructiveness (d, Fig. 19) is remark- 
ably large ; so also is Sanativeness ; it is this organ that crowds 
his ears outward. In confirmation of this organ the overseer 
remarked that although the boy was cruel and malicious to oth- 
ers, he was very much afraid of corporal punishment. The 
organ of Alimentiveness was (just before the ear) also large. 



THE HEAD. 45 

iieads of murderers and carniverous animals, recoiled 
from the conclusion to which it naturally seemed to 
tend. He says, " I revolted from this idea, but when 
my only business was to observe and to state the 
results of my observations, I acknowledged no other 
law than truth. It was afterwards ascertained to be 
in man the propensity of destruction in general, which 
when properly governed is absolutely necessary to the 
preservation of human existence." 

Bitter, caustic, and severe language, in which is 
included cursing, swearing and scolding, is referable 
to this propensity. Some persons when weak in body 
or restrained by circumstances, 

" Speak daggers, but use none." 

Many persons commit cruel deeds in whom Destruc- 
tiveness is small, for the reason that they are under 
the influence of some other passion which uses De- 
structiveness merely as a means. Some of the most 
bloody and revolting crimes recorded in history were 
committed under the influence of Conscientiousness 
when misled by superstition. St. Paul verily thought 
that he did God service by shedding the blood of the 
saints. Martyrs, in all ages, have been the victims of 
ignorance rather than of cruelty. I know many excel- 
lent men, with large Destructiveness, who are severe 
only when severity is a virtue; their frowns are ter- 
rible only to the wicked, and under their protection 
the weak and oppressed feel confident of safety. 



46 



MYSTERIES OP HEAD AND HEART. 



COMBATIVENESS. 

" I dare do all that doth become a man, 
Who dares do more is none." — Shakspeare. 

The propensity to oppose, 
contend and endeavor to over- 
come by superior strength, 
intellectual ability or social 
influence. When very large 
it renders a person pugna- 
cious, quarrelsome and fond 
of disputes. When small, 
the person is averse to con- 
tention, even for the sake of 
justice and truth, if it can 







mm 



m 




Fig. 30. 

possibly be avoided. 

The design of this propensity is to overthrow the 
obstacles which are in the way of enjoyment. It dif- 
fers from Destructiveness in being satisfied with vic- 
tory, and does not Crush a fallen foe. It only inspires 
with courage to 

" Strike till the last armed foe expires." 

The feeling which it produces is courage; — the acts 
which follow the feeling are called hostile, brave, fierce, 
impetuous, hasty; while those of Destructiveness are 
cruel, malicious, revengeful. The object of Combat- 
iveness is conquest, but Destructiveness demands 
extermination. Some of the most bloodthirsty mon- 
sters in the world have been contemptible cowards — 
such were Robespierre and JSTero; on the other hand 
some of the bravest men have in peace been the most 

Figure 20 gives a good idea of a head, viewed from behind, in 
which Combativeness (a) is large, and Cautiousness (o) is small. 
Such persons are " sudden and quick in quarrel." 



THE HEAD. 47 

kind and gentle. There is also a great difference in 
animals in this respect; the bull, the ram and the 
hamster, though not destructive animals, frequently 
manifest a large degree of Combativeness in combi- 
nation with the Social propensities. Combativeness 
borders upon Amativeness, Parentiveness and Adhe- 
siveness; and when the enjoyment of these Socials is 
opposed, Combativeness is excited to battle in their 
behalf. 

" The wren, the most diminutive of birds, 
Will fight for her young in the nest against the owl." 

Combativeness also inspires with feelings of oppo- 
sition which vents itself in disputes; and, combined 
with a large intellect, produces literary and political 
controversies. Luther, Cobbett, J. Q. Adams, and 
Brougham are instances of this kind of manifestation. 
Combined with a very large organ of Equity, it dis- 
poses to moral controversies, such as relate to temper- 
ance, abolition, moral reform, etc. I know several 
individuals who, having embraced a doubtful or con- 
troverted doctrine, seem to take the greatest satisfac- 
tion in arguing the point, even when they do not 
expect to throw any light on the subject. They wish 
to gain victory, not converts — - to confound, but not 
to convince. If at the same time Secretiveness is 
large, they love to puzzle and entrap their opponents, 
by getting their assent to propositions without , their 
foreseeing the consequences; but when Secretiveness 
and Cautiousness are small, and Conscientiousness 
large, they contend openly, loudly, fiercely, and seem 
actuated by the spirit of Hamlet, when he exclaimed 
to Laertes: 

" Why, I will fight with him upon this theme, 
Until my eyelids will no longer wag." 



48 MYSTERIES OF HEAD AND HEART. 

This organ is large in all men who have distin- 
guished themselves by great personal bravery. It 
is very large in the portrait of the chevalier Paul 
Jones, who refused to surrender, although his ship 
was sinking, and threatened to shoot the first man 
who proposed to ask for quarter. 

It is more active in the males than females of all 
animals; and among some species the natural instru- 
ments of war or defense which they possess, such as 
horns, or tusks, are much more perfect in the males. 



PRUDENTIAL RANGE. 

RELATED TO SHREWDNESS, FORESIGHT AND DISTANT DANGER. 

SECRETIYENESS. 

" Look like the innocent flower ; 
But be the serpent under it." — ShaJcspeare. 

The propensity to act indirectly or secretly; to 
conceal from opponents and even from friends the 
real truth in regard to motives and designs until 
a favorable opportunity occurs for displaying them. 
When very large and uncontrolled, it gives a ten- 
dency to deceitfulness in dealing with both friends 
and enemies; when small, it renders a person too 
open, frank and unsuspecting, and leads to self-betray- 
als and difficulties which might have been avoided by 
a little secretive management and justifiable shrewd- 
ness. 

Suspicion is a disagreeable feeling which depends 
principally upon this propensity. Those who have it 
large are inclined to suspect that all appearances of 



THE HEAD. 



49 




Fig. 21. 



good-will are deceitful; that professions are hollow 
and insincere; and that there is in overy one a dispo- 
sition to sacrifice the interests of others to the advan- 
tage of self. How far the 
schemes which originate in 
Secretiveness shall be suc- 
cessful, depends very much 
upon the intellect; we ac- 
cordingly have knaves of 
every degree of intelli- 
gence; some lay their strat- 
agems so foolishly that 
they cannot possibly escape 
detection; their very faces 
are so indellibly stamped 
with the natural language of this propensity, that 
every one is thereby put upon his guard. But there 
are men whose large Secretiveness is so combined 
with intellectual and other powers, and who are so 
thoroughly acquainted with human nature, that it is 
almost impossible for any eye, but that of Omnis- 
cience, to discover their deep and comprehensive de- 
signs. Shakspeare has drawn a most perfect illustra- 
tion of this kind of character in his Iago, and also 
Richard the Third, who says to himself: 

" Why, I can smile, and murder while I smile, 
And cry content to that which grieves my heart, 

Figure 21 gives an idea of the width of the forehead produced 
by Constructiveness, Acquisitiveness and Secretiveness. Acquis- 
itiveness is located at (c) ; Constructiveness a little below and in 
front of (c), and Secretiveness a little behind Constructiveness. 
In order to determine the development of Secretiveness, stand in 
front of the subject and fix upon Constructiveness; then observe 
whether the head continues to swell behind it. 



50 MYSTERIES OF HEAD A1STD HEART. 

And wet my cheeks with artificial tears, 
And frame my face to all occasions." 

I have seen very dishonest men, who had small Se- 
cretiveness and large intellect and Cautiousness; they 
generally pride themselves upon their cunning and 
ability to deceive; but they deceive themselves most 
— they mistake caution for secrecy — and talent for 
cunning. They are apt to overlook some secret means 
of detection, or they forget to conceal something, or 
unconsciously allow some expression to escape them 
which leads to their exposure. They are unable to 
compete successfully with those who have equal intel- 
lect and more Secretiveness. I have always found this 
organ large on successful rogues; it enables them to 
assume the appearance of honesty by suppressing the 
expression of their real feelings. 

It is large in most of the celebrated European poli- 
ticians; in Talleyrand, Metternich, and in Pozzo di 
Borgo, and enabled them to rise from obscurity and 
exert a powerful influence upon the destinies of half 
the civilized world. Such men possess a profound 
and almost intuitive knowledge of human nature in 
its secret operations. Artifice, in order to impose 
upon them, must be most perfect; a single movement 
of the eye . or features, or the least equivocation of 
voice or manner, is sufficient to excite their suspicion 
and set them upon their watch. 

The fact that Secretiveness is so much used,, or 
rather abused by rogues, renders a good development 
of it the more necessary to the friends of justice, to 
enable them to detect the machinations of the wicked. 
Mr. Hays, the celebrated high constable of New York 
city, had it very large, and was consequently capable 



THE HEAD. 51 

of conceiving the probable course which a villain would 
be likely to pursue rn a particular case, and of sug- 
gesting plans and stratagems to circumvent and bring 
him to justice. It generally happens that petty scoun- 
drels have small intellect, and Equitableness, and large 
Secretiveness. They are cunning but not wise; an 
officer, therefore, who has Secretiveness equally large, 
with an intellect much larger, has greatly the advan- 
tage of them, and frequently astonishes both them 
and the public also by his superior sagacity. I know 
several merchants who have failed in business for no 
other reason than because they were too deficient in 
Secretiveness to suspect the selfishness and treachery 
of pretended friends. Honest themselves — frank, 
open, and confident — they cannot understand the feel- 
ings which actuate those who have an organization of 
a contrary kind. Experience only teaches them wis- 
dom and prudence, but not cunning— • to avoid knaves, 
not to outwit them. 

CAUTIOUSNESS. 

" First fear, his hand its skill to try, 
Amid the chords bewildered laid, 
And back recoiled, he knew not why, 
Even at the sound himself had made." — Collins. 

This is the propensity to avoid danger. The opera- 
tions of the Lower Ipseals, which I have already 
described, is such as to produce a necessity for this 
propensity. Animals, in their eagerness to enjoy air 
and food and ease — and in their violent struggles to 
rend their prey, or to overthrow the obstacles to enjoy- 
ment, necessarily run into innumerable dangers, which 
this is designed to make them avoid. The great utility 
of this propensity is demonstrated by the consequences 



52 



MYSTERIES OF HEAD AND HEART. 



which, may be sometimes observed to arise from its 
deficiency, or from the other propensities "when unre- 
strained by its influence. Goaded by Alimentiveness, 





Large Cautiousness and small 
Combativeness — Fig. 22. 



Large Combativeness and small 
Cautiousness — Fig. 23. 



we sometimes see animals perfectly reckless of danger 
The hamster, mastiff and game-cock, in their eager- 
ness for contention, seem to overlook the superiority 
of their opponents, and thus they sometimes uncon- 
sciously devote themselves to inevitable destruction. 
Other animals are prevented from doing the same by 
Cautiousness. I have seen whole families in which 
this organ was very small; and the number of their 
scars, caused by scalds, burns, carelessness in the use 
of edge-tools, upsetting of carriages, and unnecessary 
quarrels, bore ample testimony to the importance of 
this wise provision. One of them was a fisherman, 
who once went in a boat to Providence, without taking 
any provisions with him, and a storm keeping him 
several days at sea, he like to have starved; he after- 
M^ards facetiously declared that he would never trust 
to Providence for provisions again. Some people are 
always meeting with accidents; they can scarcely go 



THE HEAD. 53 

a journey without bringing back an account of some 
misfortune which has befallen them; nor can they 
engage in any business without meeting with uncom- 
mon losses; or carry out any enterprise when careful- 
ness is requisite, without some disaster, which they 
attribute to any thing but the true cause. When such 
persons are deficient in the lower perceptives they are 
very phrenologically denominated blunderheads. 

When Dr. Gall discovered this organ, he called it 
Foresight — because he first found it large in several 
individuals who were disposed to hesitate, doubt, and 
look forward prudently to consequences, before they 
said or did any thing irrevocably ; but Spurzheim per- 
ceived that this was the eifect of the propensity under 
consideration, combined with intellect, and he there- 
fore changed the name to Cautiousness. Most of the 
herbiverous animals manifest it in a high degree; they 
have nothing to gain by destroying other animals; 
and except in self-defense, or in defense of their 
young, they never contend with other species of ani- 
mals. Their mode of life, and their means of obtain- 
ing food, are peaceable. The males of herbivorous 
animals sometimes contend fiercely with other males 
of their own species; but this is only at certain sea- 
sons, when acting under great excitement from the 
activity of their social propensities; but they will fly 
in terror from the attack of a carniverous animal not 
one-tenth their size, and which they might crush at a 
single blow. Cautiousness was not intended to help 
animals out of difficulty, but to keep them out. Those 
very animals which are the most desirous to avoid dan- 
ger, and which exert themselves the most vigorously 
to keep out of harm's way, submit with the most 



54 MYSTERIES OF HEAD A1STD HEAET. 

quietness to the infliction when it is present; whereas 
those which are the most reckless in their attempts to 
injure others, for their own gratification, make the 
greatest ado when a personal injury is inflicted upon 
themselves. Cautiousness, then, needs more intellect 
than the lower Ipseals; or, rather, it is related to 
higher intellectual powers; and the philosophical 
student of Phrenology will perceive that the higher 
organs of each class, in their very nature, presuppose 
the existence of the higher organs of the other classes. 
Without keeping this principle in mind, we shall be 
liable to take a too limited view of the functions of 
the superior powers ; they are all more general in their 
effects — they take a wider range and exert a modify- 
ing influence upon those below them. This will be 
the more obvious when I have explained all the supe- 
rior propensities, and it will be perceived that the 
nature of all the powers becomes more and more gen- 
sral as we rise in the scale. 



INDUSTRIAL RANGE. 

BELATED TO WOEK, BUSINESS AND PROPERTY. 

CONSTRITCTIYENESS 

" I will pull down my barn and build greater." — Luke. 

Propensity to work with the hands; to engage in 
manual mechanical operations. It gives only the dis- 
position to work mechanically. The skill and inge- 
nuity depend upon the Intellect and experience. 
When large, the person, even if indolent, prefers 
manual mechanical labor to any other employment. 



THE HEAD. 55 

Women, with this oirgan large, take pleasure in com- 
mon house-work, even when they are under no neces- 
sity of doing it. When small, although the person is 
fond of exercise, and not indolent, he has an aversion 
to regular mechanical business; he prefers some 
other kind of employment. It ic frequently small in 
engineers and other persons who excel in invention, 
and in directing the labors of others by superior intel- 
lect and knowledge, but who take no pleasure in work- 
ing with their hands in a routine manner which 
requires only common ability. 

So intimate is the relation between this propensity 
and the lower pereeptives, that some Phrenologists 
have considered it as partaking of the nature of an 
intellectual faculty, and have denominated it ccmi-in- 
tellectual; but it is very easy to demonstrate that it 
is in no degree intellectual; however largely devel- 
oped it may be, it never bestows mechanical talent, 
unless the pereeptives are large. In this respect it 
resembles every other propensity, and gives its pos- 
sessor a feeling of pleasure, which, in common lan- 
guage, is called a fondness of mechanics — a taste for 
architecture — a love for construction, etc. — and those 
who have it large have a great proneness to be engaged 
in mechanical operations, such as are in harmony with 
their other powers. How far an individual will be 
successful in his mechanical performances, depends 
altogether upon his intellect; but how much pleasure 
will be experienced in construction, depends upon 
Constructiveness. I know some persons who are 
excellent artists, with small Constructiveness; and 
others who are miserable bunglers with this organ 
uncommonly developed. 



56 MYSTERIES OF HEAD AND HEAKT. 

I have seen many persons with large Constructive- 
ness aud large reflectives, and moderate perceptives; 
they generally excel in mechanical contrivances, but 
fail in practice. They will sometimes make good 
general superintendents, and can judge well of the 
nature and expediency of operations which they can- 
not perform. They make better masters than jour- 
neymen. Again, there are some men who, although 
first rate workmen, cannot proceed a step beyond their 
instructions. They can work by imitation or by rules 
which others lay down; but the moment they are left 
to their own judgment, without any precedent, or 
model, or overseer, they are in a maze of perplexity. 
Under these circumstances they are frequently directed 
by the judgment of a person who is totally ignorant 
of the use of the instruments, and who could never 
have equalled in practice the laborer whom he directs. 
With large Perfectiveness this propensity gives a fond- 
ness for the fine arts and constructions of the improved 
and ornamental kind. 

ACQUISITIVENESS. 

" And there will I bestow all rny fruits and my goods." — Luke. 

The propensity to acquire property — to attend to 
pecuniary business. It gives a love of mercantile 
pursuits; when very large it renders one unwilling 
to follow any profession or calling that is not lucra- 
tive. 

When small the person continually sacrifices his 
pecuniary interests to his love of pleasure, of art, of 
literature, of social distinction, or of philanthrophy. 
If this organ . and Cautiousness are both small, the 
result is improvidence, and the tendency is to extreme 



THE HEAD. 



57 



poverty. On the contrary, if Cautiousness is large 
and Hope small, there is a tendency to penuriousness 
and a want of enterprise. 




Dr. B. Franklin — Fig. 24. 

It is remarkable that all the animals that acquire 
property first make use of their Constructiveness to 
prepare a proper store in which to deposit and pre- 
serve it for future use. The beaver, for instance, first 
makes use of his Constructiveness to gnaw down trees 
and build a convenient hut, and afterwards acquires 
bark to gratify his Alimentiveness during winter. The 

Figure 24. Dr. Franklin's head is, in several respects, a good 
illustration of Phrenology. The dotted line indicates the posi- 
tion of Acquisitiveness, which was large; the height of his 
forehead, in the middle line, indicates large Kindness, and the 
prominence of his eye and the bagging appearance of the flesh 
beneath it, indicate the organ of Words large ; all of which 
agree with his well known history. 



58 MYSTERIES OE HEAD AND HEART. 

rat also, that notoriously thievish animal, first prepares 
a nest, or hiding place, by gnawing and digging in a 
manner nearly as ingenious as the beaver, and then 
begins to acquire provisions for winter. The same is 
true of nearly all the rodentia. It is interesting thus 
to trace the connection between the propensities of Ali- 
mentiveness, Constructiveness and Acquisitiveness, 
and at the same time to observe the manner in which 
they are chained together in the brain. 

Man differs from other animals by the all-grasping 
nature of his Acquisitiveness; he is not content to 
preserve the bounties of nature for future comfort 
merely — for food or clothing — the whole material 
world is searched for things either of natural or arti- 
ficial value; every ocean and river, every mountain 
and mine is stripped of its treasures; the lives of 
animals are sacrificed without number and without 
mercy, not only to furnish food, clothing, light and 
medicine, but even for mere ornament or show. Liv- 
ing animals also are acquired and reduced to labor to 
increase his wealth. Not content with this, he often 
assumes possession of his fellow men, and disposes of 
them for the gratification of his misdirected Acquis- 
itiveness. Even his own health and personal comfort 
are frequently sacrificed to save property which he 
can never enjoy — which he only desires to possess — 
and does not expect to use to increase his happiness 
and comfort. 

Some with a very large Acquisitiveness are per 
fectly honest and noble in their dealings; they would 
not, for the wealth of all the world, sacrifice the great 
principles of morality, but they endeavor to gain 
property by every honorable means in their power; 



THE HEAD. 59 

they rise early ancj sit up late; they are very indus- 
trious and attentive to all their pecuniary affairs; 
place a high value upon their time; allow nothing 
belonging to them, or left in their charge, to be wasted 
or injured through neglect; they not only acquire but 
preserve with great care; keep a watchful eye upon 
their agents, and insist upon having every item ac- 
counted for; — while they are ready to pay every far- 
thing that may justly be charged against them, they 
in return insist upon all that is due to themselves; 
they frequently give with great liberality to the poor 
and to the support of useful institutions — but they are 
careful not to give all — and they feel greatly shocked 
and offended to learn that their gift has been appro- 
priated without regard to economy; they love to 
repeat the prudent maxims of Franklin, and show the 
young " the way to wealth " ; they take great pleasure 
in seeing their property accumulating; they never lose 
an opportunity to make a good bargain, and in the 
language of Burns, 

" To catch dame fortune's favoring smile, 
Assiduous wait upon her, 
And gather gear by every wile 
That's justified by honor." 

I have generally found Order and Number larger 
on those with predominant Acquisitiveness than those 
who have it small ; probably this is owing to the fact 
that these organs generally act together; large Num- 
ber is necessary to calculate loss and gain with facility, 
and Order to arrange the acquisitions in such a man- 
ner as to preserve them to the greatest advantage. I 
know several merchants who have failed because they 
neelected their book accounts, and in them all I found 



60 MYSTERIES OF HEAD AND HEART. 

small Order and Number. When large Acquisitive- 
ness is combined with a large intellect, the reflectives 
predominating, and Cautiousness medium, with Hope- 
fulness large, then business will be likely to be done 
on a large scale — the plans will be comprehensive 
and complicated, yet systematic and reasonable. The 
loss or gain will be such as to produce the most im- 
portant results; sometimes affecting whole nations by 
a single transaction, and even changing the policy of 
the most powerful governments. But when Acquis- 
itiveness is combined with a small Hopefulness and a 
very large Cautiousness, the transactions are of the 
most limited kind ; a sure retail business is preferred, 
and capital, instead of being employed to extend the 
business, is lent on bond and mortgage. All the op- 
erations are small, the risk is little, the profits are 
small, the expenses are moderate — everything is con- 
tracted within the narrowest bounds. In some ex- 
treme cases of voluntary littleness, the character is 
strongly marked in the personal appearance. Alimen- 
tiveness is made to suffer; the lean, gaunt body is 
contracted within threadbare garments, which are too 
small in all directions; the snivelled features sharp- 
ened to a point; the upper lip drawn toward the 
nose, exposes the incisive teeth; the fingers crooked 
to resemble claws; the body bent forward, and the 
whole figure and expression resembling a rat in a sit- 
ting posture. 



THE HEAD. 



61 



IMPROVING RANGE. 

RELATED TO CIVILIZATION, INVENTION, THE FINE ARTS AND ENTERPRISE; 
AND NOT TO THE IMMEDIATE ANIMAL NECESSITIES. 



TUNEFULNESS. 



at Fig. 25. in the head of Handel. 



Music — a spell whose magic might 
Can raise the storm of passions high, 

Or curb their fury at its height 
And bid the raging tempest die. — J. S. G. 

Dr. Gall declared that he had observed that great 
musicians are full just over the organ of Order (t), as seen 

I have failed to 
confirm his observations on this 
point, but I have noticed that 
order and number are generally 
| large on musical composers, 
though not on mere performers. 
This is what might be expected, 
since music as a science is founded 
upon mathematical principles. 

May it not be that Gall mis- 
took the peculiar development 

Handel, Musician -Fig. 25. of thoge twQ organg for ft gup _ 

posed organ of Tunefulness ? It is a remarkable fact 
that besides man birds are the only singing animals, 
and but a few species of them possess the faculty. 
They are also the only animals that have the faculty 
of imitating human speech. 

Spurzheim and other prenologists have placed Tune- 
fullness among the perceptive faculties, but it has 




62 MYSTEEIES OF HEAD AND HEART. 

every quality of a propensity. It does not 'perceive 
sound, for that is the function of the intellectual organ 
of Words or Language, for words are mere sounds. In 
some persons Tunefulness amounts to a passion. If then 
it is a blind propensity — what is its position in relation 
to the other propensities? Is it an Ipseal or a Social? 
What is its utility in the animal or mental economy? 
In answer to these questions I can offer nothing better 
than an hypothesis, which I shall abandon with pleas- 
ure when something better is offered. Although few 
animals sing, nearly all vertebrates make use of vocal 
sound, as a means of expressing their emotions and 
desires. There is, therefore, in all probability, a dis- 
tinct organ of a propensity which may be denominated 
Yocalitiveness. In man, and in a few remarkably 
social birds, this propensity becomes modified,- and re- 
ceives a super-addition which constitutes the propen- 
sity of Tunefulness. A person may possess a strong 
propensity to make music without the perceptive 
ability and vocal or mechanical skill to perform it; 
and on the other hand one may have a perfectly correct 
perception of pitch, melody and harmony without any 
propensity to become a performer. 

If this view of Tunefulness is correct, I am justi- 
fied in placing it in the improving range of Ipseal pro- 
pensities, as an exceptional and superior faculty, worthy 
to associate with wit, poetry and cheerfulness. The 
intimate relation of Tunefulness to Yocalitiveness — 
if wc may assume the existence of the last named pro- 
pensity — is indicated by the fact that music gives the 
most perfect expression to our emotions, passions and 
desires. Indeed Tunefulness may be defined as the 
emotions set to music. 



THE HEAD. 63 

EXPEBIMENTIYENESS — WIT — MIETHFUL- 

* NESS. 

"A heaven of invention." — ShaJcspeare. 

Gall, who discovered this organ, named it Wit. He 
made no attempt at a philosophical analysis of the fac- 
ulty, but contented himself by saying that it was the 
distinguishing trait in certain very witty authors. 
Spurzheim committed a grave mistake in changing the 
name to Hirthfulness. In my first work I suggested 
that it should be called Playfulness. But after many 
years of experience I became fully satisfied that the 
word Experimentiveness expresses its real function 
precisely. When exercised sportively by literary 
characters it manifests itself by producing witty 
expressions, but I conceive that its primitive func- 
tion is to produce novel modes of proceeding when 
the old methods fail; it leads to mechanical, chemi- 
cal and philosophical experiments and inventions, and 
all kinds of departures from old, routine habits and 
modes of action. It is, therefore, the natural antag- 
onist of mere instinct, and of thoughtless imitation, 
and prompts its possessor to endeavor to discover the 
means by which he can vary his conduct and adapt 
himself to new circumstances. Combined with a 
large intellect it leads to scientific discoveries. If this 
organ is large and the intellect deficient, the individual 
will be continually trying foolish experiments, and 
attempting impossible inventions. Combined with 
large social organs it produces a love of news, of social 
variety, and a dread of monotony of all kind. 

Many of the mental operations that have been attrib- 
uted to imagination really depend upon the exercise 



64 



MYSTERIES OF HEAD AND HEAET. 




Fig. 26. 



of this propensity. The word imagination literally 
signifies image forming. When the intellect is stim- 
ulated by Experiment veness 
into a state of activity, it calls 
to mind all the facts and argu- 
ments relating to the subject 
and endeavors to perceive the 
best course to pursue under 
the circumstances. This so- 
ber reasoning process is not 
properly speaking imagina- 
tion, so long as it is confined 
to apparent realities, and deals 
in known facts and their logical relations; but when 
the intellect steps beyond these boundaries, enters the 
regions of conjecture, and begins to form hypotheses 
or mental experiments, it comes within the proper 
jurisdiction of the Imagination. The Intellect then 
enjoys unbounded licence; it is no longer held in check 
by the stern authority of truth; it passes beyond 
probability, revels without restraint amid the most 
incredible wonders, and even dares to scale the dizzy 
heights of the impossible. The character of the 
imaginative creations depends upon the other propensi- 
ties that are excited at the same time; Destructi veness 
imagines scenes of blood and carnage; Imperative- 
ness imagines itself governing subjugated nations; 
Reverence imagines a heavenly millenium; and Benev- 
olence the end of all human suffering. 

If a person has Constructiveness active he will im- 

Fig. 26. Represents Tunefulness (t) and Order very small, 
and Experimentiveness immediately above them so very large as 
to amount to a deformity. 



THE HEAD, 65 

* 

agine mechanical inventions; if lie has Acquisitive- 
ness large he may invent schemes for enriching himself; 
if he is socially or politically ambitious he will form 
plans and resort to stratagems by means of which to 
rise above his rivals ; if he has literary genius he may 
invent poems or romances, and soar into what Shaks- 
peare calls a " heaven of invention." 

The sense of the ludicrous is probably one of the 
incidental modes in which this propensity manifests 
itself playfully, by giving the disposition to try absurd 
experiments, either physically or mentally, just for 
amusement, and without any idea of producing any 
useful or serious results. 

PEKFECTIYEKESS — IDEALITY— 
OKNATENESS. 

" Beautiful ! How beautiful is all this visible world ! 
How glorious in its action and itseli." — Byron. 

The creations of nature, and also those of art, differ 
from each other in their degrees of perfection. Two 
things may be equal to each other in every respect, so 
far as their utility is concerned, yet we instinctively 
prefer one to the other on account of what we regard 
as its superior beauty. This perfecting propensity is 
very little cultivated in savage life, but as civilization 
progresses in any community, and wealth is accumu- 
lated in a few superior families, their ambition to 
outshine each other prompts them to encourage the 
ornamental arts, and to make comparisons between 
the various productions of skillful workmen. It is 
easy to conceive that a great many generations of such 
rivalry would result in a modification of the upper 



66 



MYSTERIES OF HEAD AND HEART. 



part of Constructiveness, or rather a superaddition to 
it, which would constitute a distinct propensity to 
beautify, ornament, improve, and perfect. 




Miss Hosmer, the Sculptress — Fig. 27. 

There is no one organ of Poetry. Perfectiveness 
gives a tendency to ornateness of style; Credencive- 
ness, to romantic and exaggerated ideas; Imitative- 
ness, to personations and dramatic modes ot expression; 
Comparison, to metaphors and appropriate illustra- 

Figure 27. In the head of Miss Hosmer we have a fine illus- 
tration of the organs requisite to an artist. Constructivenes is 
indicated by the great width of the forehead; Expenmentive- 
r.ess, by the outline of the left side ; Pertectiveness is seen large 
at the upper part of the right side of the forehead ; the heaviness 
of her brow indicates large Weight; the distance between the 
eyes, large Form; the breadth of the part of the forehead 
between the eyes, large Size ; and the fullness of the brow, on 
her left side, large Order. 



THE HEAD. 67 

tions; the organ of Words, to copiousness and readi- 
ness of proper language; and (perhaps,) Order and 
Number, to rythm. To these may be added a pecu- 
liarity of temperament, which produces an almost 
unhealthy activity of the brain. 

This propensity and Acquisitiveness are naturally 
opposed to each other; one delights in mere utility, 
and the other in mere beauty; when one is small, 
the other is much more active. Artists, poets, and 
purely professional persons, generally have Acquisi- 
tiveness small; they are delighted with their labor 
independently of its profits, otherwise they never 
excel. "When very large, and the intellect small, this 
faculty produces fantastic notions, and tastes incon- 
sistent with common sense. The folly is still greater 
if Credenciveness is very large and the temperament 
excitable. When small, there is a want of tendency 
to the higher kinds of self-education, and to those 
artistic improvements that are not of immediate utility. 

The history of the discovery of this organ affords 
a good illustration of the manner in which the science 
of Phrenology has been created. Gall observed that 
the upper lateral parts of the forehead were remark- 
ably expanded in the busts of a great many poets, and 
proceeding in his usual empirical manner, he called a 
certain space the organ of the Poetic Faculty. Spurz- 
heim, by making a great many observations, ascer- 
tained that the upper part of the. space was very large 
on persons who were disposed to believe in the mar- 
velous, and this led him to divide the space into two 
organs, both of which are now fully established. 

Although at first this organ was attributed to 
poets only, it was afterwards observed also to be 



68 MYSTERIES OF HEAD AND HEART. 

equally large on celebrated sculptors, musicians, ora- 
tors, and all those who were uncommonly devoted to 
the fine arts, and manifested a quick perception of the 
beautiful. Dr. Spurzheim, perceiving the necessity 
of changing the name, adopted that of Ideality, which 
signifies ideal beauty, or a kind of beauty which is 
superior to reality, and which exists only in imagina- 
tion. Mr. Combe considers Ideality " an elegant and 
appropriate name." It is certainly elegant and eupho- 
nious, but I cannot admit that it is appropriate; I 
have therefore adopted that of Perfectiveness, by 
which I mean the propensity to improve and perfect. 
So far is it from being related to a kind of beauty 
which is superior to nature that I consider it directly 
related to the works of nature, particularly those 
which are perfect of their kind. 

This propensity seems to modify and exalt the aim 
of all the powers with which it combines. It disposes 
them to rise above mere utility, or rather, it crowns 
the productions of utility with ornament. Does Ali- 
mentiveness require a repast? this propensity insists 
upon its being served up with elegance, and is dis- 
gusted with the idea of feeding like a mere animal. 
Does Constructiveness inspire the mind with a desire 
to build a house? Perfectiveness wishes to have it in 
the best style; not merely warm, convenient and com- 
fortable, but splendid and perfect in every respect. 
Does Acquisitiveness desire to accumulate property? 
it inclines him to do so in the most refined manner; 
it soon becomes wearied with the dull monotony of 
mere business, however profitable. In this manner it 
very much modifies Acquisitiveness, rouses it from 
the mean and grovelling pursuits to which it is prone 



THE HEAD. 69 

when this propensity is small, and demands time for 
improvement. The majority of thieves have this 
organ deficient, particularly those who commit petit 
larceny. It frequently deters men from little crimes, 
not because they are wrong, but because they are 
mean. I once saw a highway robber with large Per- 
fectiveness, and speaking of himself, he said, " I do 
not skulk around for my prey like a thieving owl, but 
I pounce upon it like an eagle." The artist who has 
it large, is continually searching for the finest forms 
in nature for his models. The proudest achievements 
of genius are but imperfect copies of natural beauty. 
In almost all the complicated productions of nature, 
certain parts are much more perfect than others; 
and the artist, by selecting from a great number of 
specimens the parts which happen to be most perfect, 
and grouping them artificially together, is able to pro- 
duce a combination superior to any that can be found 
in reality. The florist can select the most beautiful 
flowers of the season, and with them form a bouquet 
more exquisitely beautiful, and better adapted to 
please the human mind, than any that can be found 
in nature. The sculptor or painter proceeds upon the 
same principle when he produces a Venus, an Adonis, 
or an Apollo. He finds upon, one individual a beauti- 
ful forehead, upon another a nose, or an arm, and by 
combining all the individual instances of perfection 
in one statue, he seems to excel nature, when he has 
only grouped together a number of imperfect copies 
of her most perfect productions. 

Poetry is the perfection of language. We may com- 
bine words in such a manner as merely to be under- 
stood ; but if this organ is very large, its possessor will 



70 MYSTERIES OF HEAD AND HEART. 

choose a noble subject, use the most elegant and refined 
words, and combine them in the most graceful style; 
the illustrations also, will be chosen, not for their pro- 
priety only, but for their beauty, gorgeousness, and 
splendor. Every thing low, vulgar, mean, or common, 
will, as far as possible, be avoided. The images which 
spontaneously rise in such a mind, and which will be 
entertained with the greatest delight, will be of the 
highest order. In looking around upon the face of 
nature the attention will be particularly directed to 
such objects as are adapted to this propensity- — so that 
afterward, when writing upon any subject, the images 
of the objects thus noticed will be involuntarily pre- 
sented to the imagination, and described in the glow- 
ing language of poetry. 

" The poet's eye in a fine frenzy rolling, 
Doth glance from heaven to earth, from earth to heaven," 

to find ideas fitted to illustrate, amplify and adorn his 
subject; and if his inspired vision cannot light upon 
any known objects " that suit his large desires," he 
resorts to invention, and his prolific 

" Imagination bodies forth, 
The forms of things unknown." 

Like an aspiring aeronaut, he cuts himself loose from 
the dull and prosing circumstances that confine him 
to the atmosphere of ordinary life; soars above the 
clouds; takes his station among the stars, and looks 
down through " the dizziness of distance " upon this 
lower world, where all common objects are lost in 
obscurity, and only the grandest and brightest can be 
distinguished. Such were the aspirations of Shake- 
speare, when he exclaimed, 



THE HEAD. 71 

" O for a muse of fire, that would ascend 
The brightest heaven of invention : 
A kingdom for a stage, princes to act, 
And monarchs to behold the swelling scene." 

And such also must have been the feelings of Milton, 
when he invoked the inspiration of Him — 

"Who touched Isaiah's lips with hallowed fire." 

This propensity is very dependent upon the highest 
organs of intellect. Perfect! veness gives the desire to 
improve, but reflection gives the ability, the talent, 
the necessary invention. Sometimes a very large 
organ of Perfectiveness is found combined with a very 
small intellect. The forehead may be high and wide, 
but shallow. In such cases the manifestations will 
frequently be in the highest degree eccentric and 
ridiculous, especially if combined with very large 
Approbativeness and Hopefulness. They are contin- 
ually attempting more than they can perform. They 
lay out all their undertakings on such a large and 
splendid scale that they can seldom be realized; their 
ideas are like monstrous and brilliant bubbles, which 
burst while they are coming into existence. If we 
read their compositions, we are entertained with a 
pompous array of splendid and beautiful nothings; 
their public discourses are mere 

" Sound and fury signifying nothing." 

HOPEFULNESS. 

" Hope bears us through nor leaves us when we die." — Pope. 

This is the propensity to act with reference to the 
future with confidence of success. Authors and ora- 
tors have been so much in the habit of giving meta- 
physical, romantic and , poetical explanations of the 



72 MYSTERIES OF HEAD AND HEART. 

higher mental faculties, and leaving out of view their 
utilities and physiological relations, that it seems 
almost necessary to apologize for treating them in a 
plain, practical manner. It is difficult to ascertain the 
primitive and distinctive nature of a faculty if we only 
study its manifestations amidst a complicated and 
highly civilized community where the natural and 
simple is mingled and confounded with the artificial. In 
primitive and uncultivated communities where the fac- 
ulties are manifested in their native simplicity 
we can form more correct ideas of their distinctive 
peculiarities. If we descend to the most intelligent 
animals we are inclined by our prejudices to utterly 
deny them the possession of any of the higher facul- 
ties; but the remark of Cuvier that the bodies of 
animals are experiments ready prepared by nature to 
illustrate the bodily functions of man holds equally 
true concerning their minds. 

There is no question that all the organs of the 
Ipseal class are manifested by animals, excepting the 
improving range, and, perhaps, they exhibit some 
degree of all these. Tunefulness is possessed by birds, 
and Experimentiveness in a sJight degree by all the 
higher animals. In regard to Ferfectiveness, Mr. Dar- 
win thinks that he has demonstrated that animals in 
selecting their mates are governed by a sense of the 
beautiful ; and it must be admitted that considerable 
artistic skill is exhibited by some birds in the construc- 
tion of their nests. If Hopefulness is primitively a 
propensity to migrate from a poor region to a better 
one, it is possessed by several species of animals. 
Heaven is often described as the happy land to which 
the Christian at death hopes to emigrate; the Indian 



THE HEAD. 



73 



hopes to reach the " far off island in the watery waste," 
or the happy hunting ground where " no fiends torment 



nor Christians thirst for gold." 




Fig. 28. 



Fig. 29. 



In all the books and busts that I have seen this organ 
is placed too high, and to make the blunder still 
greater, some phrenologists have located what they 
call " the organ of sublimity " in the very place where 
Hopefulness has been placed by the Creator. The 
sense of the sublime depends upon Submissiveness or 
Reverence acting upon a poetical and cultivated mind. 
The organ of Submissiveness extends farther laterally 
than it is commonly represented. To assist beginners in 
locating Hopefulness, I have prepared the two an- 
nexed engavings. A line drawn from the orifice of 
one ear {meatus auditorius) across to the opposite ear, 
(Fig. 29) will pass through the organ ; and another line 
drawn horizontally around the head, Fig. 28, passing 
across the upper part of the forehead, will also pass 
across this propensity ; the organ is at the place where 
these two lines meet. 



74 MYSTERIES OF HEAD AJSTD HEART. 

When large, this propensity causes a person to forget 
the misfortunes of the past, and undervalue the diffi- 
culties of the present, while anticipating the success 
and pleasures of the future. When Cautiousness is 
very small and Hopefulness large, there is a tendency 
to excessive Mirthfulness ; with small Acquisitiveness 
this mirthful tendency is increased, because there is 
an absence of care concerning pecuniary affairs. 

When Hopefulness is small, Cautiousness fills the 
mind with doubts and sad foreboding, enterprise is 
checked, and gives way to excessive prudence. 

When very deficient, I generally suspect that some 
of the ancestors have suffered great and long continued 
misfortunes, or depressing diseases. Disorders of the 
stomach or liver are frequently accompanied by depres- 
sion of spirits; diseases of the lungs by abnormal 
cheerfulness. 

This propensity is the highest of the Ipseal Class ; 
like the key stone of an arch it crowns the whole — is 
intimately related to the whole — and contributes more 
than any other to human happiness. It produces this 
effect by combining with the other powers, and in- 
spiring a feeling that they will yet be gratified. In 
order to fully understand the nature of Hopefulness 
we must bear in mind its high character, its extensive 
connections, its relations to the other propensities of its 
own class, and of the Socials, and especially its rela- 
tions to the highest Intellectuals. Every propensity is 
dependent upon the intellect, but the highest propen- 
sities are peculiarly dependent upon the highest Intel- 
lectuals. The lowest propensities may act effectually 
and perfectly without the aid of the reflectives; Ali- 
mentiveness, Destructiveness and Combativeness, for 



THE HEAD. 7 5 

instances, can act vigorously and be perfectly gratified 
without reflection ; the perceptives are to them suffi- 
cient guides; not so the highest propensities — their 
very definition implies the existence of Causality to 
look beyond the present. These remarks apply with 
great force to Perfectiveness and Hopefulness; neither 
of these propensities can produce the effects which 
they were evidently designed to do without the aid of 
reflection. I have already shown the effect of a large 
Perfectiveness upon a deficient intellect, and its great 
dependence upon Causality and Comparison; this is 
even more obvious in respect to Hopefulness. I cannot 
conceive how this propensity can act at all until Caus- 
ality has first acted. It is only by means of Causality 
that we look forward to the future ; we remember the 
past and perceive the present by means of the percep- 
tives, but when from these premises we infer the 
events to come, we do so only by means of Causality. 
JSTow when we consider that Hopefulness relates to the 
doubtful, the contingent, the future — that its very 
office is to produce feelings and actions with reference 
to subjects concerning which we only know in part, 
and believe in part, conjecture in part, and hope the 
rest, we must admit that it is especially dependent 
upon Causality for the very material upon which it 
acts. When anything is present, or within our reach, 
we cannot feel any hope in relation to it; but when 
the event is one in which we feel a deep interest, and 
which by means of Causality we perceive must happen, 
though it is doubtful whether the event will be favor- 
able to us or not, then this propensity has its appro- 
priate stimulus, produces agreeable anticipations, dis- 



76 MYSTEBIES OF HEAD AND HEAET. 

misses all forebodings, and disposes us to act as if suc- 
cess were certain. 

The lower animals can possess no more of hope than 
they do of reason. They know so little of the proba- 
bilities of future even ts, that they can scarcely be said to 
hope or fear concerning them. But man has intellectual 
powers sufficiently capacious to store up the events of 
a^es past, and, by the light which they shed upon the 
iuture, they enable him to foresee the probable fate of 
generations yet unborn ; without this happifying pro- 
ponsity he would be inconceivably miserable and mel- 
ancholy. We are not left to conjecture on this point. 
Hundreds of instances have fallen under my own obser- 
vation, in which a deficiency of the organ was attended 
with the most indescribable unhappiness. The more 
reflective power such persons possess the more melan- 
choly it renders them, by enabling them to see difficul- 
ties and troubles afar off, and thus exciting Cautious- 
ness to action while there is not sufficient hope to 
counteract its chilling effects. The most melancholy 
people that 1 have ever seen have large intellects. They 
have the gift of showing, by the most unanswerable 
logic, that they are the most unfortunate beings in the 
world, and they recur to the mi seres of the past as 
data from which to infer the misfortunes of the future. 

" Melancholy is a fearful gift ; — 
What is it but the telescope of truth, 
Which strips the distance of its phantasies 
And brings life near in utter nakedness, 
Making the cold reality too real." — Byron. 

Most of those who commit suicide, have this organ 
small and Destructiveness large. To them the future 
ho]ds out nothing sufficiently desirable to make life 



THE HEAD. 77 

worth preserving. t If Equitableness and Creden- 
eiveness are large they are frequently disposed to relig- 
ious melancholy, and have "a fearful looking for of 
judgments to come," while the promises of the gospel 
afford them no consolation. 

" On horror's head, horrors accumulate,'' 
till nature sinks in despair beneath the intolerable load, 
and they rush into the arms of death in a frenzy of 
desperation. When the organ is but little below 
medium, the effect is less severe; then there is a dis- 
position to look at the dark side of every subject, and 
to foresee evils which exist only in their own imagina- 
tions. They are apt to think themselves cursed with 
bad luck/ they not only see troubles in the future, but 
they call up from the recollections of the past only the 
disagreeable incidents and circumstances, and dwell 
upon them with mournful interest; they will review 
their past lives and show that they have been continued 
scenes of misfortune; they seem to have a great fac- 
ulty of recollecting disagreeable things, and forgetting 
those which are agreeable, and they frequently enter- 
tain their friends with a doleful account of their mis- 
fortunes. One of this kind of persons lately under- 
took to convince me that he was naturally unlucky. 
" Not long since," said he, " I went a fishing, and 
every body in the boat caught fish but me. I baited 
my hook just as they did, put it down into the water 
in the same way close by the side of theirs, and yet 
caught no fish, while they hauled them in all around 
me ; and what was most provoking, there was a kind of 
half fool with us who had better luck than any of the 
rest." The friends of a young man once requested me 
to explain, upon phrenological principles, his singular 



78 MYSTERIES OF HEAD AND HEART. 

conduct. He had considerable money left him by hig 
father, and was surrounded by rich friends who urged 
him to engage in business, but he constantly refused 
on account of his fears that he chould not succeed. 
He seemed averse to all kinds of enterprise in which 
the results were in any degree doubtfuj. I found in 
him a very amiable organization, but Hopefulness defi- 
cient. Although his health was tolerably good, he 
undertook to show to me the probability that he should 
die with the consumption, as several of his relatives 
had fallen victims to that disease, and another, whom 
he mentioned, would doubtless have met with the same 
fate had he not been killed by lightning. 

Hope was Napoleon's " star," and led him on, like 
an ignis fatuus, first to empire and then to ruin. It 
was Hope and courage which dictated the celebrated 
remark of Julius Caesar to the fisherman, when the 
storm threatened him with destruction : " Fear not, you 
carry Caesar and his fortunes." Hope is the "good 
angel " which hovers around the couch of the pious, 
and inspires them with dreams of future glory and 
happiness. 

" O Hope ! sweet flatterer, whose delusive touch. 
Sheds on the afflicted mind the balm of comfort; 
Relieves the load of poverty — sustains 
The captive, bending 'neath the weight of chains." 

Those who have this organ large are comparative 
strangers to feelings of melancholy; they look forward 
to the future with bright anticipations of happiness. 
If they have been unfortunate they flatter themselves 
that it is all for the best, or that such bad luck, cannot 
last long, but must soon turn in their favor. They 
call up hundreds of instances in which, under similar 



THE HEAD. 79 

unfortunate circumstances, the result had proved favor- 
able; and even let the worst happen they still have 
resources of happiness. When Acquisitiveness is 
large, they engage with confidence in hazardous specu- 
lations, and when small they make the most of pov- 
erty — live contented, and free from care and anxiety. 
So long as they can enjoy the present they " take no 
thought of the morrow, what they shall eat, nor what 
they shall drink, nor yet for their clothing what they 
shall put on." When they are in the greatest straits 
they feel a hope that by some means, they know not 
exactly what, they will be able to extricate themselves, 
and that all will yet be well. Actuated by these feel- 
ings they sometimes accomplish apparent impossibili- 
ties; they will persevere in undertakings when all but 
themselves have become discouraged. 

" Things out of hope are compass'd oft with venturing." 
In the days ot childhood we look forward to the 
happiness which we expect to enjoy after we have come 
to maturity, and when that time arrives we still have 
our greatest felicity in anticipation. We still 

" Bid the lovely scenes at distance hail! " 
The brilliant treasure is always almost within our reach, 
but continually eludes our grasp. " Time rolls his 
ceaseless course," and as we are eagerly engaged in the 
pursuit, our progress is suddenly arrested by the cer- 
tainty that we are on the brink of death, but even then 
" Hope hears us through, nor leaves us when we die." 
Dr. Rush remarked that the skulls of insane patients 
were depressed in the parietal bone, the place where 
Hopefulness is situated. Those patients were proba- 
bly melancholies, who suffered from diseases of the 
stomach and liver. 



80 MYSTEKIES OF HEAD AND HEART. 

Marshall Hall writes: 

" The temper of the patient is singularly modified by different 
disorders. The state of despondency in cases of indigestion 
forms a remarkable contrast with that of hopefulness in phthisis 
pulmonalis." 

Dr. Fothergill, of the West London Hospital, re- 
ferring to the effects upon the mind of diseases of dif- 
ferent parts of the body, remarks: 

" The consumptive patient just dropping into the grave will 
indulge in plans stretching far into the future, ignoring his real 
condition, and the impossibility of any such survival as he is 
calculating upon. It is a curious yet familiar state. Hope seems 
to rise above intelligence, just as in certain abdominal diseases 
there is a depression which defies its corrections. 

" In curious relation to these conditions stand the well 
known differences of the pulse. In chest diseases the pulse is 
usually full, sometimes bounding; in abdominal diseases it is 
small and often thready. The pulse of pneumonia and the pulse 
of peritonitis are distinctly dissimilar, and contrast with each 
other. 

" The explanation which is shadowed out, for it really does not 
amount to more, is that abdominal diseases causes a depletion 
of the emotional centers of which depression is the outward 
indication, whilst phthisis leads to a plethoric state associated 
with excited emotional conditions. 

" Allied in essence to melancholia is the pamphobia or ' low 
spirits ' common to women generally. It is the cry of the suffer- 
ing brain for better nutrition, for a more liberal supply of arte- 
rial blood." 



THE SOCIAL PROPENSITIES. 

These are conveniently divided into three groups, namely: The Domestic, 
the Governing, and the Conforming. 



DOMESTIC GROUP. 

RELATED TO SEX, CHILDREN, HOME, AND FRIENDS. 

AMATIVENESS. 

" Be fruitful ; multiply and replenish the earth." — Genesis. 

The sexual propensity gives an intense love of per- 
sons of the other sex. When too large and unbal- 
anced b} T moral considerations, there is a disposition, 
for the sake of this love, to neglect business, imputa- 
tion, and duties of all kinds, for its gratification. 
When properly governed and directed, it leads to vir- 
tuous love and marriage. When very small, there is 
a manifest indifference toward the other sex. If, how- 
ever, Adhesiveness is large, there is a steady, though 
not very ardent attachment to one companion, and 
indifference to others of the opposite sex. In one 

Note. — Equilibrium. — Comparative anatomy, and the experi- 
ments of physiologists, combine to indicate that the posterior 
part of the cerebellum, near the middle line, the vermiform pro- 
cess, is an organ in some way related to locomotion. There is 
probably no organ in the brain related to motion of any kind 
per se, but it is reasonable to suppose that a propensity is pos- 
sessed by all vertebrates to maintain their equilibrium, and it is 
not difficult to understand that it is needed in connection with the 
function of Amativeness. At present we can only regard Equi- 
librium as a candidate organ. 

6 (81) 



82 



MYSTERIES OF HEAD AND HEART. 



respect this mental organ is analogous to Alimentive- 
ness, and that is that its activity depends upon the 
health, the temperament, and other conditions of the 
body, which cannot be ascertained by an examination 
of the head. 





Fig. 30. Fig. 31. 

The cerebellum does not increase- much until the 
age of puberty, it then begins to expand, and nearly 
doubles in size between the ages of ten and twenty; 
the character, during this time, undergoes a corres- 
ponding change; the opposite sex, Mdiich before were 
viewed without partiality, become now extremely 
interesting, and an indescribable charm seems to be 
thrown around them. Their voices are enchanting, 
their forms appear exquisitively lovely, and their 
favoring smile bewitching beyond all power of expres- 
sion. Unconscious of the nature of the feeling that 
inspires them, they only know that their greatest bliss 

The organ, when large, as in Fig. 30, gives width and fullness 
to the lowest part of the back of the head, behind the lowest 
part of the ears. In Fig. 31 it is small. 



THE HEAD. 83 

is in each other's society; their highest ambition to 
gain each other's love; and the most dreadful of all 
apprehensions, that of bestowing their affections 
without a return. "Love," says the Count De Segur, 
"creates for us a new world, inhabited by two beings, 
one of which is to us the whole universe; for that 
being alone do we value our wealth, our talents, and 
even our virtue. We prize no worth in ourselves but 
that which pleases this being. Time seems to linger 
when it is absent, and fly when it is present; we expe- 
rience that which Madame de Lambert says : ' we do 
not find the hours sufficiently long when we have to 
dedicate them to the beloved one.' But whence comes 
so sudden a change in the existence of the youth? 
What has subdued his will, tamed his boldness, over- 
powered him, and triumphed over his independence? 
Is it a being more enlightened, more virtuous, or more 
powerful than himself? No! a very child in purity 
and power ; a young female. She has no other weapon 
than her looks, no other power than her charms ; but 
she has beauty, and youth imagines that whoever pos- 
sesses it, is endowed with all perfection. Even wisdom 
yields blushingly to her empire, and the wise La 
Bruyere could not refrain from saying, 'A beautiful 
face is the most enchanting sight, and the sound of the 
voice of our beloved is the sweetest of melodies.' " 

A large development of this organ explains the 
mysterious fascination which some persons possess, 
who are not endowed with more than a medium share 
of other agreeable qualities. It explains why we often 
see marriages of the most opposite characters. The 
amiable, virtuous, and talented, united to the morose, 
unprincipled and ignorant, without any other cause 



84 MYSTEKIES OF HEAD AND HEAET. 

being alleged than pure love. If warned by their 
friends that they are rushing to their ruin, they cling 
desperately to the fatal hope, that by the fabled omni- 
potence of love, they shall, by some means, they know 
not exactly how, escape the threatened danger, and 
sail happily down the stream of life. A_t all events, 
spite of the remonstrances of friends, or even the 
pleadings of their own better judgment, they are 
determined to run the hazard of the die; and they 
only repent of their rashness when poverty, disgrace 
and finally perhaps desertion, extinguishes the last 
faint embers of their expiring hopes. But still the 
lamp of love burns on, and the deserted one exclaims, 

"With all thy faults, I love thee still." 
Or, in the language of Byron, 

"Though I cannot be beloved, still let me love." 

It may be objected, that this ardent attachment is 
not produced by Amativeness without being com- 
bined with Adhesiveness. This is true, but neither 
can Adhesiveness produce this effect without Amative- 
ness. It is Adhesiveness that produces friendship, but 
it is Amativeness that directs it to the other sex. So, 
also, the admiration of beauty originates in Perfective- 
ness, and it is Amativeness that directs it toward the 
other sex. 

The adaptation of Amativeness to the admiration 
of personal beauty, seems wisely designed to prevent 
the transmission of deformed and imperfect bodily 
organizations to posterity. It is not the effect of mere 
youthful fancy, but was implanted in the mind for a 
highly useful purpose, and therefore should be by no 
means discouraged; on the contrary it seems to be of 



THE HEAD. 85 

the very highest importance that it should be properly 
directed, and just ideas of what constitutes beauty 
of constitution, should be early inculcated. This 
subject teaches us that the knowledge of the princi- 
ples upon which physical and mental energy and har- 
mony depend, cannot be too highly appreciated as a 
branch of education. 

I seldom find a person possessing much energy of 
character who is deficient in this propensity. It seems 
to give activity to Combativeness, and is generally 
accompanied with a large development of that organ. 
Males, among all animals, manifest it in a greater 
degree than females ; and I nave seldom found it very 
large in females, without observing at the same time 
an uncommon manifestation of the other masculine 
traits. 

FALLING IN LOVE. 

At the age di puberty, the organs of the whole con- 
stitution, of body and mind, undergo a change. The 
lungs expand, the circulation of blood increases, the 
face becomes more full and florid, the eyes brighter, 
the muscles firmer and more elastic, the brain larger, 
and the mind more serious and mature; persons of 
the opposite sex begin to appear more interesting. 
There is as yet no thought of love, much less of mar- 
riage. Young company is sought just for amusement; 
love and marriage are mentally postponed indefinitely, 
as something undesirable and inconvenient. If the 
subject is mentioned to the youth, he acknowledges a 
general regard and admiration for the sex, but ho is 
in love with no one. He prefers one lady to another 
very much as he does one gentleman to another. He 



86 MTSTEEIES OF HEAD AND HEART. 

sees others fall desperately in love, and wonders at 
their folly and infatuation ; he fancies that if he ever 
marries, it will be pretty much for the same solid 
reasons that he would take a mercantile partner. He 
feels sure that he never would marry one who had a 
disagreeable mother or sister, or who had red hair or 
large hands; indeed, he never will marry at all until 
he is rich, or at least has a competence. The poor 
fellow has not the least idea that the love principle is 
expanding within him more and more every day, and 
that it will soon burst forth and hurry him on to his 
destiny with the irresistible force of an insanity. At 
length the time arrives; he is ready to fall in love, 
but is utterly unconscious of it; nature has prepared 
him for the sacrifice, and he will certainly be in love 
with some lady within a short time. He happens in 
company with a person he has long known, and 
wonders that he has before been so blind to her 
angelic qualities ; what a voice ; what a smile ; and oh, 
what eyes. " Grace is in all her steps, heaven in her 
eye, in every gesture dignity and love." He has no 
doubt that the charm that has overpowered him is in 
her; but in reality it is in himself. If he had not 
fallen in love with her, he would with some one else. 
He fell in love for the same reason that an apple falls 
from a tree to the ground, simply because it is ripe 
enough to fall there. 

PARENTIYENESS OR PHILOPKOGENITIVE- 

NESS. 

" As a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings." — Luke. 
This is the propensity to protect, nourish and in- 
struct the young and helpless, especially one's own 



THE HEAD. 



87 



children. "When large, it gives tenderness, patience and 
condescension on the part of parents, nurses, teachers 
and guardians. When small there is a tendency to 
treat children with indifference if not with harshness. 
In females the propensity acquires additional intensity 
on account of its intimate relations to the maternal 
functions. 

It is much the larger in 
the female sex, they upon 
whom devolves the care of 
raising the young, and im- 
planting the first seeds of in- 
telligence and virtue. Who has 
not felt the influence of a moth- 
er's love, and fled from the stern 
rebuke of an angry father to 
take shelter behind the bosom 
of maternal indulgence? Even 
when compelled by a sense of duty to administer pun- 
ishment she docs so with such evident reluctance as to 
convince the sufferer that she would gladly refrain, if 
she could do so consistently with her regard to the 
future welfare of her child. This awakens a feeling 
of genuine repentance more certainly than any degree 
of severity would do if inflicted in a tyrannical man- 
ner. When, however, Parentiveness is so much devel- 
oped as to be ungovernable by the higher powers, the 

Fig. 32 is the head of a good natured school master who was 
repeatedly turned out of his school house by his unruly and vic- 
ious boys ; but he was so kind and forgiving, and at tho same 
time such an excellent teacher, that he finally won the love of 
them all and obtained unbounded influence over them. His 
Firmness was very small and his Parentiveness and Kindness 
both very large. 




Fig. 32. 



MYSTEEIES OF HEAD AND HEART. 



consequence is a fatal indulgence toward the child, 
encouraging him in vice, and even in crime, which a 
salutary correction might have prevented if seasonably 
applied. 

This is certainly one of the most amiable traits in 
the human character, and when the organ is largely 
developed in a man it gives a gentleness to his manner 
which renders him very agreeable to young persons. 
The president of a college is seldom popular if this is 
small, but when large he feels a fatherly interest in the 
welfare of his pupils, which manifests itself in such a 
manner as generally to win their Adhesiveness in 
return. Governors, school teachers, and all persons in 

situations where authority 
over juniors is to be exer- 
cised in a discretionary 
manner, need the softening 
influence of this propensity 
to prevent them from act- 
ing with too much harsh- 
ness and severity. When 
the organ is very large in 
persons who have no child- 
ren of their own, substi- 
tutes are very frequently 
adopted. Orphan children 
are thus sometimes better 
provided for than they 
would have been had they never lost their parents. 

Fig. 33 is the head of Junius Brutus, the celebrated Roman 
patriot and stoic, who condemned his own son to death because 
he conspired against the state. In his head the domestic socials 
are very small compared with the governing group. Parentive- 
ness (p) is particularly deficient. 




Fig. 33. 



THE HEAD. 89 

Children that have t)een left by their cruel mothers 
to perish have frequently found in strangers the most 
affectionate of parents. The fondness of little misses 
for dolls, and the aifection lavished by older ladies 
upon pets, such as lap-dogs, kittens, and even plants, is 
caused by Parentivenes, when it has no more proper 
object with which it can be gratified; but as soon as 
the care of an infant devolves upon one of them she 
immediately neglects all her former pets. To those 
females who have the organ very large there is a feel- 
ing of delight experienced in taking a beautiful infant 
into their arms, which a man who has the organ small 
cannot understand. I think Philoprogentiveness too 
long a namo, and have therefore adopted that of 
Parentiveness. 

INHABITIYEISTESS OE CONCEOTRATIYE- 

NESS. 

" It is my own, my native land." — Scott. 
This is the propensity to fix upon an abiding place, 
a home, and remain in it. There is an attachment to 
the village, the house, the lands, the trees, the streams 
and hills in our vicinity, even though our friends are 
no longer there. When very small all places are alike 
indifferent, provided friends and comforts are the same 
in all. It is generally small and Hopefulness large in 
sailors and persons who prefer a roving life. This propen- 
sity has been denominated Concentrativeness, because 
it has been observed that when large on some persons 
they seem to be indisposed to change the subject of 
conversation. They literally dwell upon it even when 
they have nothing new to say in regard to it. I con- 
sider this tendency to continuity as an incidental and 



90 



MYSTERIES OF HEAD AND HEART. 



secondary effect of Inhabitiveness. Phrenologists have 
committed many errors, by not distinguishing between 
the primitive uses of faculties and their incidental 
modes of manifestation under peculiar circumstances, 
and in combination with other faculties. 




George Combe— Fig. 34. 

Mr. George Combe, the distinguished phrenological 
author, insisted upon changing the name of this organ 
to Concentrativeness, and considered his own head, 
Fig. 34, a good illustration of it when largely devel- 
oped. 

One objection that has been made by Dr. Elder and 
others to Mr. Combe's views, is thai Concentrativeness 
is merely continued attention, and, therefore, an intel- 
lectual function. But the obvious answer to this 
objection is that the intellect attends to those things 
that interest the dominant propensities. I have fully 
satisfied myself of the fact that persons full at the 
point (I, Fig. 34) are more continuous in all their men- 
tal operations than those who are small there, but this 



THE HEAD. 



91 



appears to me to be nferely one of the modes in which 
Inhabitiveness manifests itself. 

ADHESIVENESS. 

"Entreat me not to leave thee." — Ruth. 

This propensity was 
primitively intended to 
make children cling to 
parents, and to those 
friends who are capable 
of protecting and de- 
fending them. It is 
larger in the heads of 
children than in those 
of adnlts, and in women 
than men. Women man- 
ifest a preference for 
men who are brave and 
strong. " Beauty loves 
to repose upon the arm 
of strength." This propensity is one of the princi- 
pal elements of matrimonial attachment, and partial, 
enduring friendship and love. When Adhesiveness is 
very large and Kindness small, there is a disposition 
to be exclusive, clanish and sectarian, and to exhibit a 
want of philanthrophy and of courtesy to strangers. 

Some phrenologists believe that there is an organ 
near Adhesiveness related to monogamy or matrimo- 
nial attachment to one only. I regard this as an 
unsettled question. 

Figure 35 is the head of Dioclesian, the Roman emperor, who 
resigned a throne to enjoy the pleasures of domestic life. Ob- 
serve how long his head is from the ear back to the occiput. 
Amativeness, Parentiveness Inhabitiveness and Adhesiveness 
are all large. 




Fig. 35. 



92 



MYSTERIES OF HEAD AND HEART, 



THE GOVERNING GROUP. 

RELATED TO SELF-WILL, TO SOCIAL EMINENCE, AND TO FIRM AND JUST 
GOVERNMENT IN THE FAMILY AND THE STATE. 



IMPERATIVENESS OR SELF-ESTEEM. 

" When Caesar says ' do this ' it is performed." — Shakspeare. 

Thk ic the propensity to command, to take the lead 
and direct the conduct and affairs of others. It pro- 
duces independence and individuality of character, 
and indifference concerning the opinions and wishes 
of others, especially when Approbativeness is small. 
The organ is large in the head of Peter the Great — 
(Figure 36 i). 

When Imperativeness 
is large it often takes the 
form of self-conceit, and 
tends to unwarranted as- 
sumptions of authority. 
Combined with Kindness 
it prompts to meddlesome 
but benevolent attempts 
to do good by regulating 
the affairs, the morals and 
manners of others. Com- 
bined with a sense of jus- 
tice it insists upon estab- 
lishing just laws and rules of conduct, and forcing 
others to submit to such laws. When small there is 
a want of self-assertion, and a tendency to stand back 
and allow persons of inferior abilities or social posi- 
tion to take the lead. This is more strikingly true 




Fig. 36. 



THE HEAD. 93 

when Reverence is farge and Imperativeness small. 
Self-reliance depends npon large Imperativeness, 
Hopefulness and Combativeness, while the conform- 
ing social organs are small. 

We often see individuals manifesting this propen- 
sity in a most ridiculous manner; putting themselves 
forward, confidently assuming superiority, and getting 
themselves into conspicuous situations, while it is 
obvious to all but themselves that they are miserably 
deficient in the qualities necessary to fill an important 
station. It is astonishing to see the success which 
sometimes attends the ambitious efforts of men of 
inferior talents, when acting under the influence of 
Imperativeness. Others, with gigantic intellects, give 
way before them, astounded at their impudent preten- 
sions and disgusted with their egotism and ignorance. 
If their favorite hobby is one which is complicated 
and difficult to be understood, such as theology, med- 
icine or politics, they generally gain the ignorant over 
to their opinions by the loud, confident and imperious 
manner in which they assert them, and the supercil- 
ious haughtiness with which they bear themselves 
toward others. 

If we examine the busts or portraits of all those 
master spirits of ages past who have assumed to dic- 
tate the operations of others, either in the cabinet, the 
army, the church, the bar, or the academy, we inva- 
riably find a large development of this organ. It is 
frequently very active in the insane, and is liable to 
be separately diseased, producing the most singular 
exhibitions of imperiousness. Gall, Spurzheim and 
Combe mention several instances in which they have 
found it largely developed in such patients. I have 



94 MYSTERIES OF HEAD AND HEART. 

also seen similar cases. A few years ago an insane 
man escaped from his friends and took his station 
npon one of the peaks of the New York highlands. 
Assuming that he was the Deity, he began to give 
orders to the whole universe; he called in a loud 
voice, " Attention, all creation ! in battalions to the 
right wheel ! march ! " 

APPROBATIVENESS. 

" The thought of what men's tongues will say." — ShaJcspeare. 

The propensity to gain approval, admiration and 
reputation. While Imperativeness aims at authority, 
this propensity assists by gaining the good opinion of 
those who can confer power and influence. In a weak 
mind it assumes the form of vanity and ostentation, 
or a silly love of compliments, praise and flattery. It 
produces a dread of ridicule, and if unbalanced, it pre- 
fers glory and popularity to truth and justice. 

When small and Imperativeness large, there is too 
much independence of public opinion, a neglect of 
reputation, and indifference to praise or blame; such 
persons often seem less honest and good than they 
really are; they do not flatter or compliment others, 
nor expect or desire compliments from them. 

The most despotic governments in the world, as 
well as the most republican, were originally founded 
upon the favor of the people. Caesar was thrice 
offered a " kingly crown, which he did thrice refuse," 
only because he doubted if public opinion was suffi- 
ciently ripe for the ultimate purposes of his ambition. 
Cromwell could never have driven out the long par- 
liament at the point of the bayonet and usurped des- 
potic power, had he not first won the approbation of 



THE HEAD. 95 

his soldiers; nor could Napoleon have mounted the 
imperial throne had he not been popular with the 
French army. The extent to which Imperativeness 
may stretch authority depends in a great measure 
upon the previous success of Approbativeness ; the 
very same acts of tyranny which JN T apoleon could per- 
petrate with impunity, would have cost a Bourbon his 
sceptre, and perhaps his life. Imperativeness and 
Approbativeness are twin organs, closely connected 
in the brain, and in every well balanced mind these 
propensities mutually assist each other; their com- 
bined operation constitutes ambition, which, when 
properly regulated, is not only useful and laudable, 
but absolutely necessary to the well-being of society. 
Every political election affords illustrations of the 
influence of these two propensities. The candidate, 
all other things equal, who has the larger Approba- 
tiveness, will get a majority of votes over one who 
has the larger Imperativeness. The former will be 
smiling, bowing, deferential and polite; will take great 
pains to render himself agreeable to the citizens by 
assurances of his intention to advance their interests; 
by professions of regard for their welfare, and friendly 
inquiries concerning their health, their families, their 
business, etc. ; great care is at the same time taken to 
avoid touching upon any topics calculated to rouse 
their prejudices, and to say nothing which, if reported, 
will be calculated to lower him in public estimation. 
He salutes his acquaintances across the street, and 
pays the most particular regard to all the little cer- 
emonies that indicate respect and esteem. As soon, 
however, as he becomes firmly seated in power, so as 
to be in a degree independent of those who raised 



96 MYSTEEIES OF HEAD AND HEART. 

him, his Approbativeness has no longer its appro- 
priate stimulus; Imperativeness is now in the ascen- 
dent, and frequently the 

" Proud man, 
Clothed with a little brief authority, 
Most ignorant of what he's most assured, 
Plays such fantastic tricks before high heaven 
As make the angels weep." 

" The proud man," says Dr. Gall, " is imbued with 
a sentiment of his own superior merit, and, from the 
summit of his grandeur, treats with contempt or 
indifference all other mortals; the vain man attaches 
the utmost importance to the opinions entertained of 
him by others, and seeks with eagerness to gain their 
approbation. The proud man expects that mankind 
will come to him and acknowledge his merit; the 
vain man knocks at every door to draw attention 
toward him, and supplicates for the smallest portion 
of honor. The proud man despises those marks of 
distinction which on the vain man confer the most 
perfect delight. The proud man is disgusted by indis- 
creet eulogiums; the vain man inhales with ecstacy 
the incense of flattery, although profusely offered and 
by no very skillful hand." 

Mr. George Combe makes the following remarks 
concerning this propensity: 

" The feeling which is most commonly experienced 
when this organ is large, even when favorably com- 
bined with other organs, is anxiety about what the 
world will think of us. A youth in whom it is pow- 
erful cannot do this thing because everybody will look 
at him, or cannot do the other because the people 
would Monder. In older persons it produces a fidgety 



THE HEAD. 97 

anxiety about the opinions of the public, or of the 
circle of acquaintances who compose the public to 
them. They imagine themselves continually before 
the public eye, and that the world is occupied with 
little else than weighing their motives, speculating on 
their conduct, and adjusting the precise point in the 
scale of importance and respectability at which they 
ought to be placed. A great portion of this feeling, 
however, is the mere inspiration of a very powerful 
Love of Approbation in their own heads. The public 
are too much engrossed with themselves and their 
own affairs to bestow so minute and permanent a 
degree of attention upon an individual. This anx- 
iety about public opinion, when excessive, is subver- 
sive of happiness and independence. 

" When the development of Love of Approbation is 
excessive, while the regulating organs are deficient, it 
is tho cause of great unhappiness. It renders the lit- 
tle girl at school miserable if her dress and the style 
of living of her parents be not equal to those of the 
parents of her associates. It overwhelms the artist, 
author or public speaker with misery if a rival is 
praised in the journals in higher terms than himself. 
A lady is tormented at perceiving in the possession 
of her acquaintance finer dresses or equipages than 
her own. It excites the individual to talk of himself, 
his affairs and connections so as to communicate to 
the auditor vast ideas of his greatness or goodness; in 
short, vanity is one form of its abuse. ' Sir,' says Dr. 
Johnson, ' Goldsmith is so much afraid of being unno- 
ticed that he often talks, merely lest you should forget 
that he is in company.' 

'* The organ is possessed by the lower animals. The 
7 



98 MYSTERIES OF HEAD AND HEART. 

dog is extremely fond of Approbation, and the horse 
displays the sentiment not only in his sensibility to 
marks of affection but in his spirit of emulation in 
the race. Dr. Gall mentions that in the south of 
France the peasants attach a ' bouquet ' to the mules 
when they have acquitted themselves well, and that 
the animals understand it as a mark of approbation 
and feel afflicted when it is taken away." 

Approbativeness is somewhat analogous to Adhe- 
siveness in seeking the support and good will of the 
powerful and influential, but it embraces a larger 
number and extends over a wider social field. 

FIRMNESS. 

" Come one, come all, this rock shall fly 
From its firm base as soon as I." — Walter Scott. 

This is the j^ropensity to resist the influences which 
tend to produce changes of purpose, such as persua- 
sions, arguments, threats, examples or commands. It 
tends to bestow stability of character. When very 
large, and Submissiveness and Kindness small, it pro- 
duces stubbornness, and an inability to reason fairly 
against opinions that have once been adopted. 

When very small the character is unstable, and the 
mind is continually liable to change under social influ- 
ences good or bad. This is especially true when the 
conforming social organs are large. A great deal of 
dishonesty is caused by a deficiency of Firmness. The 
lessons and principles inculcated in early life lose their 
influence in the presence of immediate temptation 
when Firmness is small. 

This is the propensity to maintain authority, to 
continue in the position, or course, which Imperative- 



THE HEAD. 



99 



ness assumes, to persevere in resolutions which relate 
to social intercourse. Imperativeness aspires to estab- 
lish government, Appro bativeness to render it popular, 
and Firmness to give it permanence, fixedness and 
consistency. It differs from Combativeness in being 
intended to benefit others, instead of conquering them. 
It does not attack or oppose, but only holds its own. 
~No man can permanently establish the government ol 
a nation, a church, or a family, who is deficient in 
Firmness. It is larger in men than in women, and 
contributes more than anything else to their universal 
superiority in government. We frequently see a man 
with small Imperativeness but powerful Firmness; he 
may be modest, unassuming, and even cowardly, but 
still manifest the greatest reluctance to yield his post. 





Fig. 37. Fig. 38. 

Fig. 37 represents Firmness and Imperativeness very small 
and the conforming organs large. 

Fig 38 represents the upper back of the head shaped like the 
end of an orange, depressed in the middle at Firmness and Im- 
perativeness, and very large each side, at Approbativeness and 
Equity. 



100 MYSTERIES OF HEAD ATSTD HEART. 

Danger, interest or duty may induce him to give way, 
but he does it with the most evident unwillingness, 
and returns again as soon as the difficulty is removed. 
It is common to see a man with very large Firmness 
and Combativeness governed on ordinary occasions 
by his wife, and even by his children; the trouble 
of commanding and directing the affairs of others 
is to him greater than the pleasure; but his Im- 
perativeness, though small, will sometimes be ex- 
ited, and when he does take his stand he is like 
St. Helena in the midst of the ocean — nothing 
can shake his purpose. Firmness is very large in our 
Indians, combined with Cautiousness and Secretive- 
ness, and accordingly they fight in a cowardly manner, 
but if taken prisoners they die firmly at the stake, suf- 
fering the most cruel tortures without uttering a word 
of complaint. They have been swept away before the 
whites, but they have never been reduced to submis- 
sion, or changed in their manners, habits or opinions. 
The Negro character is just the reverse, and the forms 
of their skulls present a striking contrast when com- 
pared with those of Indians. 

The character of those who have Firmness large, 
combined with Imperativeness, seems to be stereo- 
typed; they easily resist the influences which others 
bring to bear upon them; whatever notions they adopt 
in childhood they are apt to hold through life; and it 
\z therefore of the greatest importance that their 
first impressions should be correct. If they once 
acquire vicious habits it is very difficult to reform 
them; threats, punishment or entreaties, are often 
ineffectual; nothing but their own wills can change 
their wills ; sometimes they can be managed by gently 



THE HEAD. 101 

falling in with them, admitting their superiority, and 
appearing to coincide with them, but at the same time 
suggesting certain ideas as worthy of cheir considera- 
tion, leaving the final decision entirely to their own 
pleasure. They should be 

"Gently seduced into the paths of truth," 
and the course of conduct which they are led to adopt, 
must seem to be one of their own choice. 

EQUITABLENESS, JUSTICE OR CONSCIEN- 
TIOUSNESS. 

" Be just and fear not." — Sluikspeare. 

The propensity to be impartial and equitable, espec- 
ially to those who are inferior in power or influence. 
It does not produce honesty or conscientiousness in 
the common acceptation of these terms, without the 
assistance of Submissiveness and other faculties, and a 
proper moral training and education. This propensity 
belongs to the governing group, and was designed to 
produce just and impartial government in the commu- 
nity and the family. Incidentally it tends to fairness 
in business transactions. "When very small, the person 
is capricious and partial, and decides questions accord- 
ing to prejudice, friendship, resentment or self-inter- 
est, and not according to the rules of truth and justice. 

The head of Kathleen is a good representation of a 
numerous class of ladies. She possesses a fine physi- 
cal form, good health, an emotional temperament, and 
strong and domestic affections; a full share of the love 
of dress and display common to her sex; Imperative- 
ness, Firmness and general Kindness small, but Sub- 
missiveness rather large, and Equity or Conscien- 
tiousness (Fig. 39) very large; a low wide forehead, 



102 



MYSTERIES OF HEAD AND HEART. 



indicating mechanical skill with uncommon order and 
neatness in her work. She has all the good qualities 
and all the weaknesses of her sex; a loving, submis- 
sive, devoted wife, whose whole world is within her 
family; capable of the most passionate love and the 
most intense suffering from jealousy; constant in love 
but changeful in her temper and her mood. She takes 
not the slightest interest in public affairs, and cares 




Kathleen — Pig. 39. 

nothing about women's rights. She is perfectly con- 
scientious, and never intentionally does wrong or omits a 
duty, but her ideas of right, wrong and duty are derived 
entirely from education, the teachings of her church 
and the opinions of her small circle of friends. She 
is utterly incapable of understanding the characters or 
doing justice to the motives of people who differ widely 
from her sect in religious opinions, or who violate 



THE HEAD. 103 

what she regards as £he sacred rules of conventional 
propriety. She has faith, hope and a good conscience, 
but no charity ,or toleration for sinners of her own sex. 

Conscientiousness is greatly dependent upon the 
higher organs of intellect. It is by means of re- 
flection that we are enabled to understand our relations 
to others, and Conscientiousness is affected according 
to the views which the intellect takes of a subject. 
If a person is so deficient in the intellectual organs 
that he is incapable of understanding his duty, Con- 
scientiousness alone will not guide him right. It only 
gives the disposition to do justice, and not the ability 
to ascertain what constitutes it. It is only by means 
of the intellect that we know anything. After the 
intellect has acquired a knowledge of all the facts in 
a case which affect the right of God or man, Consci- 
entiousness inspires the mind with a desire to act 
according to justice, and respect those rights. Some- 
times we see persons who, like Lord Bacon, know very 
well what is required of them, but are little disposed 
to perform it; and again we see others who have a 
strong desire to do their duty, but are deplorably igno- 
rant of it, and " need that some one should teach " 
them. 

It has frequently been urged as an objection to 
phrenology, that if men commit crimes on account of 
a deficiency of Conscientiousness it is unjust to punish 
them, and therefore they should be set at liberty. But 
whatever may be the cause that prompts men to vio- 
late the rights of others, society is certainly justified 
in protecting itself from their outrages, whether they 
are idiots, criminals, or insane; and any criminal code 
that has for its object the safety of society and the 



104 MYSTERIES OF HEAD A1STD HEART. 

improvement of the offender, will be in accordance 
with phrenological principles. I must insist, how- 
ever, that nothing can be found in phrenology to jus- 
tify unnecessary punishment. The safety of society 
renders it necessary that criminals should be deprived 
of the liberty which they have abused, and so guarded 
that they can do no more mischief to their fellow men, 
but any farther proceedings against them should be 
intended for their reformation and improvement. 
Society has no right to punish any one for revenge, or 
merely for an example to others. I am aware that 
throughout the world the most severe inflictions are 
excused on the ground that they frighten others; and 
in some countries the most horrid cruelties are per- 
petrated under the sanction of this principle. But, 
in the name of humanity, does not the history of man 
furnish already a sufficient number of examples of the 
consequences of iniquity? Is it necessary to keep 
continually before the community the example of sev- 
eral thousand individuals in misery for the purpose of 
warning others ? Does the history of the past prove 
that severity is the best preventive of crime? Has 
society any right to protect itself by such barbarous 
and unmerciful means as those now in use, when 
milder means may be made equally effective? I con- 
fidently believe that when the sublime principles of 
phrenology are universally understood, the present 
criminal laws and criminal discipline will undergo an 
important change; and the convict, instead of being 
treated like a beast of prey, will be managed like a 
moral patient. Instead of being considered a fit object 
for the exercise of unnecessary severity, he will be 
pitied as the most unhappy of mankind, and a remedy 



THE HEAD. 105 

applied adapted to the nature of the disease. While 
he will be secured, and every means taken to prevent 
him from repeating his crimes, every means will also 
be taken to render his situation as happy as circum- 
stances will permit, and to restore him again to society 
better qualified and disposed to respect the rights of 
others. 



THE CONFORMING GROUP. 

BELATED TO SOCIETY IN GENERAL, AND PRODUCING CONFORMITY TO ITS 
REQUIREMrNTS IN OPPOSITION TO SELFISHNESS, CLANNISHNESS, AND 
SELF-WILL. 

SUBMISSIYENESS, OR REVERENCE. 

" Thy will, not mine, be done." — Jesus. 
The propensity to obey commands, to submit to 
authority, and to admit others to be superior. It 
recognizes excellence or superior power, with pleasure, 
whether it is found in nature or in society. The 
immensity of space, the vastness of the celestial sys- 
tem, the velocity of the planets, the destructive force 
of earthquakes, the power of genius, the greatness of 
moral heroes, and above all, the omnipotence of God — 
these are subjects calculated to excite this propensity. 
It produces respect for parents, teachers, magistrates, 
and superior persons of all classes. It is probably the 
principal element in the sense of the sublime, the 
grand and the awful. "When small, there is an uncere- 
monious bluntness, a want of respectfulness in the 
manners, and a tendency to treat superior persons 
with undue familiarity. This kind of irreverence is 
still more manifest when Imperativeness and Combat- 



106 MYSTERIES OF HEAD AND HEART. 



iveness are large, and Approbativeness, Secretiveness, 
and Equitableness are small. 

Imperativeness, or Self- 
Esteem, is the propen- 
sity to compare our- 
selves with others, and 
if possible to establish 
a claim of superiority. 
Submissiveness, or Rev- 
erence, on the contrary, 
is the propensity to 
compare ourselves with 
others and admit our in- 
feriority. It recognizes 
authority and humbly 
sits at the foot of its throne, listening and learning. It 
unites itself with the other conforming propensities, 
and if there is no personal superior present, it resorts 
to books, traditions, relics, and monuments as substi- 
tutes. It seeks for something to admire, worship, 
imitate and believe. Even if the intellect is very 




Fig. 40. 



Fig. 40 is so drawn as to give an idea of the appearance of 
the top of the head when this organ is large, and also when 
small. There are, in early infancy, two open places, caused by 
the bones of the skull not having completed their full develop- 
ment, so as to come together and cover the brain. One of these 
is located at Imperativeness and the other at Submissiveness. 
The bones at these two points oftentimes join imperfectly, so as 
to mislead novices into the belief that there is an uncommon 
development or deficiency of the organs. But the prominences 
made by mere bones are angular and sharp, and easily distin- 
guished from those made by brain. A bony projection behind 
the ear is often mistaken for an organ, and so, also, is a bony 
prominence at the occiput, 



THE HEAD. 



107 



large, it becomes filled with the ideas thus acquired 
from others, and is destitute of originality; the opin- 
ions are all borrowed, and are sustained by authorities 
instead of facts derived from experience. There is in 
such a head more of learning than of practical wis- 
dom, or of the executive ability which springs from 
self-reliance. 




Sir Walter Scott— Fig. 41. 

Fig. 41. Sir "Walter Scott's head is extremely high in the Con- 
forming region. All four of the organs of this group are large 
in his head. It was said of him that he was prouder of being 
invited to dine with the king than he was of all his works. His 
reverence for royalty and rank, and ancient families is mani- 
fested in all his writings. His heroes, unlike those of Dickens, 
H'ere invariably chosen from among princes and nobles. 



108 



MYSTEEIES OF HEAD AND HEART. 



KINDNESS OE BENEVOLENCE. 

"Charity suffereth long and is kind." 
This is the propensity to treat all persons with 
suavity and benevolence, especially if they are stran- 
gers, and have no claims upon us. Its motto is, 
"Come, send abroad a love for all that live." It is 
the basis of philanthropy, and the love of humanity 
in general. It is opposed to sectarianism, clannish- 




Dr. B. Franklin — Fig. 42. 

Fig. 42. Benjamin Franklin. There is no trait in the char- 
acter of Franklin more remarkable than his benevolence. In 
him it never degenerated into a weakness. His charities and 
kind deeds were always accompanied with prudence, and admin- 
istered with shrewdness and wisdom. He was industrious and 
economical that he might have the means of being charitable. 
It is doubtful whether the American continent has produced a 
character with fewer faults, and a greater number of virtues. 
Kindness is indicated by the height of his forehead in the mid- 
dle line. 



THE HEAD. 109 

ness, and exclusivene^s in society. It gives a ten- 
dency to acquire general knowledge concerning human 
affairs, instead of limiting inquiries to the immediate 
circle in which we live. This is especially true when 
the front part of the organ is large, and is combined 
with a large intellect. When small, there is a mani- 
fest indifference to the general interests of mankind, 
and a tendency to concentrate the feelings and thoughts 
upon self and home friends, upon the church, the 
village, and the community, or society in our near 
vicinity. 

Sometimes there is an apparent contradiction exhib- 
ited by persons in whom Kindness is large, combined 
with large Acquisitiveness ; they will not give away 
property, but they will give their personal services, 
attend the sick, show kindness in their manners, 
words, etc. A similar inconsistency appears in those 
who have Kindness with the Governing Group large; 
they will be kind to those who obey them, and con- 
form to their notions; but they will be tyrannical, 
oppressive, and intolerant to those who treat their 
authority with contempt ; or who are opposed to their 
views of politics, religion, or morality. Again, wc 
may see a person with large Destructiveness and Kind- 
ness, and Acquisitiveness small ; he will be profuse 
with his property, and therefore take great credit to 
himself for his benevolence; but perhaps he will at 
tho same time commit deeds of wanton cruelty. All 
these facts are explained on the principle that the 
large organs predominate over the smaller. 



110 MYSTERIES OF HEAD AND HEART. 



IMITATIVENESS OB SYMPATHY. 

" Catch the manners living as they rise." — Pope. 
The propensity to adopt the manners, language and 
habits of associates, and especially of those whom we 
admire and regard as examples worthy of imitation. 

It disposes a person to 
give up his old man- 
ners and practices, and 
conform to those of his 
associates. It tends to 
make all the members 
of a community act and 
dress and speak alike. 
It is the natural auxil- 
iary of Kindness, and 
is opposed to all man- 
ifestations of stubborn- 
ness and self-will. It 
is the principal element 
of sympathy, since it 
not only prompts us to 

Figure 43 is the head of Socrates, the moral giant of antiquity. 
What a magnificent head ! All the capabilities of human nature 
appear to have been exhausted in producing his brain. His 
forehead is broad, high and deep. This immense cerebral mass 
was not developed at the expense of his bodily vigor. He was 
a brave and hardy soldier, but his most noted deed in this capa- 
city was the saving of the life of a comrade on the battle-field, 
at the imminent risk of his own. He was a sculptor, having 
learned the art from his father, and his broad forehead indicates 
a mechanical propensity. He was an original, shrewd and 
unequalled logician and reasoner, and this agrees with his capa- 
cious intellectual lobe. His intuitive knowledge of human 
nature was probably never surpassed even by Shakspeare, and 




Socrates— Fig. 43. 



THE HEAD. Ill 

do as others do, but it makes us endeavor to conceive 
of their feelings, wishes and thoughts. It therefore 
tends to make us study human nature. In 1838, in 
my "New System of Phrenology," I pointed out the 
fact that persons with the front part of Kindness and 
Imitativeness large, are more prone than others to 
study human nature. Upon this hint several phrenol- 
ogists announced the discovery of a new organ, which 
they called Human Nature, between Causality and 
Reverence. They mistook a peculiar manifestation of 
a known faculty for a distinct faculty. Tho truth is 
that Kindness and Imitativeness, combined with the 
reflectives, produce a tendency to study the characters 
of all sorts of people. Those in whom these organ; 
are deficient may study the characters of their partic- 
ular acquaintances, but they fail to understand people 
who differ from themselves, or from their limited 
circle. Shakspeare is a wonderful instance of a writer 
who could describe with accuracy a great variety of 
characters. Walter Scott also excelled in this respect; 
and they are both remarkably large in tho region 
between the reflectives and Submissiveness. 

this is indicated by the vast expansion of the upper part of his 
forehead. Without being a fanatic or a sectarian, he was a truly 
pious reformer, and fell a martyr to the cause of moral and relig- 
ious truth. Among his other peculiarities he possessed a talent 
for imitation and drollery, and a faculty of illustrating his ideas 
in an exceedingly amusing and facinating manner. One of the 
•charges brought against him on his trial was that by his undig- 
nified and humorous manner of expression he captivated and 
corrupted the youth. Instead of teaching in the formal and 
grave manner of the schools, he condescended to amuse and 
entertain the young in order to gain their attention and instruct 
them more successfully. The organ of Imitativeness is large in 
his head. It is located at the dotted line (Fig. 43.) 



112 MYSTERIES OF HEAD AND HEART. 

This faculty is an important one to an actor or an 
orator, as well as to a dramatic author, as it enables 
one to temporarily forget himself and " enter in '' to 
the feelings of an imaginary character. 

A person having Imitativeness very large, with 
Kinduess small, will be able to conceive how another 
feels; will, as it were, imitate or repeat imperfectly 
in his own mind the feelings of others, but will have 
no very strong desire to gratify or relieve them ; yet 
this is one kind of sympathy, though not such as pro- 
ceeds from a well balanced mind. Lavater remarks, 
in substance, that by imitating the expression of 
another we may partially experience his feelings, and 
I doubt not that this is true, especially of those who 
have Imitativeness very large. 

The importance of making a distinction between 
propensities, feelings and actions, upon which I have 
so much insisted in this work, must now be obvious. 
Spurzheim, Combe, and all other phrenologians, agree 
in denominating this propensity a feeling of Imita- 
tion ; but imitation is an action produced by the pro- 
pensity of Imitativeness. It would be absurd to say 
" I feel imitation," but it is perfectly proper to say 
" I act in imitation," and it is also proper to say " I 
feel sympathy." I therefore name this the propensity 
of Imitativeness — the feeling which it produces I 
call sympathy — and the actions which it produces I 
denominate imitations. If the term sympathy does 
not convey the precise idea of the feeling produced by 
Imitativeness, then I know of none in our language 
that does. I have, in writing this work, often felt a 
necessity for new terms to express more precisely the 
different feelings, and I doubt not that as the science 



THE HEAD. 113 

continues to progress* improvements will be intro- 
duced in this important part of the nomenclature of 
mental philosophy. 

Those who have this organ large, are capable of con- 
forming to the manners and habits of those with whom 
they associate much more readily than those who have 
it moderately developed ; they seem to have the power 
of approaching in a proper and successful manner 
those who occupy eminent stations. They are more 
easy and graceful in their manners, and can readily 
adapt themselves to the feelings, actions and situations 
of others. It is large in those who are capable of rep- 
resenting the feelings and actions of others in writing 
or speech; and no man can easily excel as an actor, 
orator, artist, dramatic author, ventriloquist, dancer 
or musician, unless this is fairly developed. In proof 
of this, we find it large in the portraits or heads of all 
who are eminent in either of these professions. It 
gives the dramatic author the power of calling up in 
his own mind the same train of ideas and feelings 
that he supposes the characters to possess whom he 
describes; and having thus, as it were, imbued himself 
with their spirit and made their case his own, he pro- 
ceeds to pour out their feelings in language such as 
that of Shakspeare, Yoltaire, Walter Scott, N. P. Wil- 
lis, and Longfellow. 

Those authors who are incapable of reasoning pro- 
foundly, but who can write racily and pictorially, and 
readily adapt their style to the subject, will invariably 
be found to have moderate reflectives and large per- 
ceptives and Imitativeness. They 

" Catch the manners living as they rise." 
They describe things as they see and feel and hear 



114 MYSTEEIES OF HEAD AND HEAKT. 

them, but do not attempt to account for them. Most 
of the writings of novelists are of this character. 

CREDENCI YENESS — M ARYELOUSNESS — 

WONDER — SPIRITUALITY— jSIJPER- 

NATURALITY. 

" Lord, I believe ; help thou mine unbelief." — Matthew. 

The various names that this organ has received 
prove that it has not been well understood. Gall 
included Credenciveness and Perfectiveness, or Ideal- 
ity, under one name, (the poetic faculty,) and regarded 
them as one organ. Spurzheim separated them, and 
demonstrated that the upper portion is related to 
Faith, and the lower to Beauty; one is more especially 
devoted to religion, and the other to the fine arts. 

I regard this as the propensity to believe the asser- 
tions of others; to assume what they say to be true. 
It is very active in the young. By its promptings 
they acquire knowledge concerning what has been 
said or written. It is therefore an essential element 
in the love of literature, biography, and history. It 
fills the mind with the materials required for conver- 
sation, and for writing in a general and varied man- 
ner. The organ of Language gives memory and 
facility in the use of unusual words, but it does not 
bestow the disposition to use language; this springs 
from the conforming Socials, and chiefly from Cre- 
denciveness. When the intellect is small, or the 
knowledge deficient, this organ tends to produce 
superstition in its thousand forms. 

It is unfortunate for business men to have this 
organ large. They trust their customers and endorse 



THE HEAD. 



115 



for their friends too ifeadily. They allow themselves 
to be drawn into novel and doubtful schemes, from 
which a little more natural skepticism would have 
saved them. Women who have this organ large, and 
Secretiveness small, are too confiding. A scientific 
head is generally skeptical, but a literary and poetical 
head is credencive. This faculty does not prompt to 
deception, but it tends to unconscious exaggeration. 
It is an important element in a poetic and romantic 
imagination. The manifestations of this faculty are 
often confounded with those of Perfectiveness, (Ideal- 
ity,) but there is a vast difference between the exag- 
gerated and the beautiful. 





Paine— Fig. 44. 



Gibbon— Fig. 45. 



Every proposition, the truth of which we cannot 
test by the evidences of our own senses, if it is proba- 
ble, or even possible, is calculated to excite and gratify 
Credenciveness. But its most natural stimulus is the 
testimony of intelligent beings. I consider it as spe- 
cially designed to make us act upon the testimony of 



116 MYSTERIES OF HEAD AND HEART. 

others, and particularly of our superiors, in cases 
where we cannot have the evidence of our senses. 
Impressions enter through the senses to the percep- 
tives, and are analyzed, classed and connected by the 
renectives. Causality performs the last and highest 
process of intellect ; and if the proposition is not per- 
fectly self-evident, it becomes a matter of belief or of 
skepticism ; that is, it becomes an appropriate stimu- 
lus for Credenciveness. This propensity is of course 
modified in its action according to the nature of the 
subject, the amount of evidence, the proportion of 
Credenciveness to intellect, and the effect which it is 
to have upon our interests, or our hopes. Whether 
an individual will be skeptical or credulous, depends 
upon the proportion which his intellect bears to Cre- 
denciveness and Submissiveness. Those who have 
very high but shallow foreheads, are apt to be foolishly 
credulous; and those who have low and prominent 
foreheads, are inclined to skepticism. They wish to 
investigate much and believe but little. There is a 
third class who have foreheads wide, high and promi- 
nent; they love to believe when they can, but they 
cannot without proper investigation. They examine 
thoroughly, and believe sincerely, many controverted 
doctrines ; they seem to take pleasure in revolving in 
their minds doubtful subjects, even if they cannot 
quite believe them. If it is something which chal- 
lenges belief — if it has probability or even possibility 
in its favor, it is a proper subject to stimulate and 
delight this propensity, and produce the feeling of 
of marvelousness. This enables us to understand 
the characters of novelists, romancers, and dramatic 
authors, such as Scott, Yoltaire, Shakespeare, and 



THE HEAD. 117 

Tasso, who all had v£ry high foreheads, jjarticularly 
in the region of this organ and Imitativeness. Those 
who have been remarkable for faith upon religious 
subjects, have the same development, combined with 
Submissiveness ; such are Bunyan, Baxter, Sweden- 
borg, Irving, Wesley, and hundreds with whom I am 
acquainted. 

I consider this as one of the most important ele- 
ments of a love of knowledge. The ability, or the 
talent of knowing, depends upon the intellect; but 
the desire, the love, the proneness to learn, depends 
upon the propensities. Each propensity produces a 
desire to know that which will be gratifying to itself. 
The highest gratification of Credenciveness consists in 
knowing what people have said or written. It is easy, 
therefore, to understand why those who have it large 
should be very fond of reading or hearing the extraor- 
dinary assertions of others, and of inquiring into their 
truth. If the intellect is large, they will be commonly 
successful in their inquiries, but if it is small they 
may be induced to give credence to the most absurd 
statements. It is this propensity that makes us love 
to hear or read extraordinary things, even if we do not 
believe them. It seems as if some love to stretch their 
faith to its utmost, just to give it exercise; the more 
marvelous the story, the better it suits them; and if 
Submissiveness is large, and the statement is made 
upon high authority, it becomes perfectly charming. 
This organ is larger in youth than adults, and in 
women than men. It accounts for the love of the 
marvelous manifested by children; for the pernicious 
novel reading habits of girls; and for the ease with 
which impostors of all descriptions succeed with the 



118 



MYSTERIES OE HEAD AND HEART. 



generality of women. I have noticed that those 
persons who in youth read the most novels, and the 
least science, in maturer years are the most prone to 
superstition and fanaticism; they are much greater 
sticklers for matters of mere faith and form than for 
moral and christian practice. 

The exposition which I have made of this propen- 
sity shows that it is one of very great importance in 
society. It is the grand lever by means of which the 
few can govern the many more despotically than by 
any other. It is for this reason that the union of 
church and state is a desirable object with all despots, 
and adds immensely to their power. 




Tasso — Fig. 47. 



This is plainly, then, a conforming Social propen- 
sity, since it is the means by which children and all 
ignorant persons are guided. Nothing renders a man 
more ungovernable, or unamiable, than a disposition 
to doubt every thing he hears, and to rely entirely 



THE HEAD. 119 

upon his own judgment and observation, instead of 
giving due weight to the testimony of others. 

In regard to the lower animals, it is more difficult 
to show that they possess Credenciveness than any of 
the other Socials. It is certain that they have it in a 
less degree than any of the others, which alone is 
sufficient to prove its exalted nature. 

Fig. 47 is the head of Tasso, who divides with 
Milton and Shakespeare the highest honors of exagge- 
rated poetry. Shakespeare differs from his rivals in 
the fact that " in the very tempest and torrent " of his 
mythical creations he never entirely loses sight of the 
actualities of human nature, but Milton, Tasso, and 
Dante constructed high pyramids of wonderful and 
beautiful improbabilities and crowned them with 
things impossible. If we analyze poetic genius, we 
find it compounded of various elements: 1. There is 
the ability to use good language with facility; 2. The 
talent for rythm and rhyme; 3. The sense of the beau- 
tiful; 4. The inventive or experimentive imagination; 
5. The propensity of Credenciveness, which, when 
large, bestows the tendency to imbibe the marvelous 
and exaggerated, and so to mingle it with the beauti- 
ful and the true in their expressions that it is difficult 
to separate and distinguish them. Contrast the head 
of Tasso, Shakespeare, Milton and Scott, with those 
of Paine, Hume and Gibbon, and then compare their 
productions, and you will find them equally in con- 
trast. One class delights in contemplating and relat- 
ing beautiful wonders that no sane man is expected to 
believe, while the other smiles with contempt upon 
historical statements which the whole Christian world 
regards as absolute truth. 



120 MYSTEEIES OF HEAD AND HEART. 

There is no faculty of the mind that is manifested 
in such a great variety of modes, or that influences so 
many important human affairs as this credencive pro- 
pensity does. A person who has- this organ very 
large is certain to manifest it in some way or other. 
Many men are skeptical upon subjects with which 
they are thoroughly conversant, or in relation to 
which they have a prejudice, yet they are foolishly 
credulous concerning other things in regard to which 
they are comparatively ignorant. We frequently see 
a Spiritualist who does not believe in Christ, but he 
believes in A. J. Davis; he does not believe in the 
Yirgin Mary, but he believes in Kate Fox; he does 
not believe in the Apostles, but he believes in the 
Davenport boys; he does not believe that the Omni- 
potent God could assume the human form, to make 
communications to man, but he believes that Katie 
King, John King, and any number of dead savages 
can become incarnate and exhibit themselves to 
believers ! ! 

If an organ is very small it is not manifested in 
any combination or in any manner, and if it is large 
it may not be exhibited by any two persons alike. 
This remark is especially true of the higher faculties; 
their functions are more relative and complex than 
those of the lower, and it therefore requires a more 
searching and discriminating analysis to detect and 
illustrate their manifestations. One often sees a mer- 
chant who is skeptical and shrewd enough when deal- 
ing with mercantile sharpers, but who, in regard to 
spiritual manifestations, or love affairs, is credulous 
beyond measure. 



THE HEAD. 121 

ipMOKY. 

The only plausible theory of the physiology of 
Memory, is that every conscious impression made 
upon a brain fibre produces such a change in the 
structure of some part of the fibre that when it is 
vibrated again, from any cause, it will repeat the 
same peculiar vibration and state of consciousness 
as at first. When a person is young the impressions 
upon the brain are easily and permanently made, but 
in old age, or after the brain has been diseased, the 
impressions are less effective, and consequently the 
memory is poor. 

The association of ideas probably depends upon 
associations among the phrene organs and fibres. The 
intellectual organs are so related that the excitement 
of one generally calls them nearly all into action to a 
greater or less degree. Thus the name of a thing 
recalls its form and color and its connections with 
other things ; so also the form of a thing recalls its 
name and the events that transpired when we saw it 
before. If the thing thus called to mind is in some 
way connected with a pleasant or a disagreeable event 
in our lives, the feelings formerly experienced are 
again in some degree excited on account of the nat- 
ural tendency to association in the action of organs. 

THE TEMPEKAMENTS. 

The word temperament originally signified mixture. 
It is applied to those proportions and conditions of 
the body, and appearances of the face that denote 
peculiarities of character, independently of phrenol- 
ogy and physiognomy. The probability is that the 



122 MYSTERIES OF HEAD AND HEAET. 

different temperaments originated long before the 
commencement of the historic period, when men lived 
in widely separated localities, under various climates, 
where they fed upon very different kinds of food, and 
were subjected to greatly contrasted influences and 
conditions. The low, moist climate of Holland appears 
to produce men who are broad in the pelvic region; 
the elevated plains of the Peruvian Andes, where the 
pressure of the atmosphere is less than elsewhere, 
produce extraordinary expansion of the chest; the 
cold, clear air of the Scandinavian and British high- 
lands produces fair skins and flaxen or red hair; the 
sandy and dry deserts of Arabia produce slender, agile 
forms and swarthy features, greatly in contrast with 
those of people of the same race who inhabit more 
northern climates. Even in a single lifetime, the con- 
stitution and complexion of an Englishman undergoes 
a remarkable change in the warm miasmatic climate 
of India. 

In order to treat the subject systematically, and 
place the doctrine of Temperaments upon a scientific 
basis, we may consider the whole constitution as con- 
sisting of seven distinct classes of organs, and assume 
that the predominance or deficiency of one of these 
produces a simple or elementary temperament, while 
a combination of two or more classes produces a com- 
pound temperament. By adopting this method we 
can represent the temperament of any individual by 
numbers, just as we do his phrenological develop- 
ments. 

The ancients, who knew very little of physiology, 
believed that there were three different colored fluids 
in the body — the sanguine or red, the bilious or 



THE HEAD. 123 

black, and the lymphatic or white. According to 
their ideas the dominance of one of these fluids pro- 
duced a particular temperament. Experience has 
demonstrated the accuracy of their observations. 
Dr. Thomas, of Paris, was the first to suggest that 
the three great cavities of the body, namely, the cra- 
nium, the thorax and the abdomen or pelvis, may be 
made the basis of three temperaments. I believe 
that I was the first to propose the addition of the 
muscular system as the basis of a seventh simple 
temperament. The following description of the tem- 
peraments will now be understood. I will first 
describe the three that depend upon the fluids; next 
the three that depend upon the great cavities; then 
those that depend upon the muscular system, and, 
lastly, several that are produced by combinations of 
the simple temperaments: 

1. The Sanguine Temperament is indicated by a 
florid face, blue eyes and brown, flaxen, auburn or red 
hair. It abounds in the highlands of Northern and 
Western Europe. Probably exposure to the cold air 
originally produced this florid sanguine condition, by 
forcing the blood to the face to sustain it and keep it 
from freezing. Accordingly, it is generally found 
upon people who are fond of exercise in the open air, 
and who have an aversion to sedentary employments. 
Even if they have good intellects, and are fond of 
reading, the confinement required to study is irksome, 
and often injurious to the health; they manifest viva- 
city, and a love of various kinds of pleasure and spor- 
tive exercises of body and mind. Many authors com- 
mit the mistake of saying that the sanguine temper- 



124 MYSTERIES OF HEAD A]5TD HEART. 

anient is indicated by large chests; but the fact is that 
florid complexions and light hair may be seen upon 
people of large or of small chests. 

2. The Bilious Temperament was formerly supposed 
to depend upon the predominance of a black fluid in 
the body; it was therefore denominated the Melan- 
cholic temperament, from Melan, black, and cholia, a 
fluid or bile. It is probable that the sallow complex- 
ion and dark hair and eyes, when seen in the white 
race, is caused by the predominance of the dark, 
venous blood over the arterial. Possibly extreme 
cases of this temperament have resulted from diseases 
of the liver in tropical and miasmatic countries. The 
word melancholy, when used to signify a sad condition 
of the mind, was undoubtedly derived from the 
observation that this mental condition was frequently 
observed upon persons of this complexion. The 
word sanguine, on the contrary, is used as synony- 
mous with hope and confidence, because people of the 
sanguine temperament were notoriously cheerful, and 
inclined to look upon the bright side of the future. 
That there is no necessary connection between a dark 
complexion and melancholy, is proved by the well 
known fact that negroes are the most cheerful of 
human beings. 

Habitual sadness is unquestionably a manifestation 
of vital depression, which in most cases has resulted 
from the diseases of ancestors. 

3. The Lymphatic Temperament is indicated by 
softness of the flesh and indolence of expression and 
action. It probably originates in a disease of the 
blood, and is most frequently seen in persons of 
scrofulous constitutions. Excessive fatness is often 



THE HEAD. 125 

confounded with this temperament, but there is no 
necessary connection between the two conditions. 
Persons of all temperaments may become fat after 
middle age, and lymphatic people are occasionally 
seen who are quite lean. It is not the quantity but 
the condition of the flesh that is to be considered. 
Persons of this temperament are generally, but not 
always, light complexioned. 

Let us now describe the temperaments that depend 
upon the predominance of one of the three great 
cavities. 

4. The Cranial or Cerebral Temperament results 
from a large brain and a slender body, particularly 
small in the thorax. Of course such a person might 
excel in study, and in mere intellectual operations, 
that require but little expenditure of animal vigor, 
but in everything else he would be deficient. 

5. The Thoracic or Respiratory Temperament 
results from a large chest and a small head and pelvis. 
This bestows bodily energy and vigor without long 
continuance, and without a disposition to study. 

6. The Pelvic or Abdominal Temperament is pro- 
duced by a broad pelvis and capacious abdomen, with 
a relatively small head and chest. Such persons are 
slow, unenterprising and uninteresting, but they have 
remarkable power of continuance. 

7. The Muscular Temperament is indicated by a 
large frame and large, firm muscles, bestowing uncom- 
mon strength without much activity. 

The seven temperaments that I have described may 
be regarded as elementary, and as such they are sel- 
dom found. All other temperaments are compounded 
of these seven elements united in different proportions. 



126 MYSTEEIES OF HEAD AND HEAET. 

COMPOUND TEMPERAMENTS. 

8. The Mercurial Temperament, erroneously de- 
nominated the Nervous Temperament, results from 
small muscles and well developed chest, and a head of 
at least average size. This may be combined with any 
complexion. It is the combination that bestows the 
greatest degree of activity, but without unusual 
strength. The leanness and delicacy of muscles that 
results from disease is often mistaken for this tempera- 
ment, but the genuine mercurial temperament is often 
seen in wdiole families, and even in tribes, in whom 
the health is unimpaired. The ancient Greeks repre- 
sented the God mercury, the wing-footed messenger of 
Jove, as possessing this combination. 

9. The Cerebro-Mercurial Temperament. — The 
combination of the cerebral with the mercurial gives 
the highest degree of mental activity and power. This 
is the temperament most favorable for the manifesta- 
tions of imaginative genius. 

10. The Emotional Temperament results from the 
combination of the cerebral with the sanguine and 
thoracic. A large brain acting upon a sanguine and 
vigorous constitution is favorable to powerful emo- 
tional expressions. This is frequently seen in Irish 
people. 

11. The Plethoric Temperament is generally indi- 
cated by a large chest and pelvis and a short neck, with 
generally a florid complexion. There can be no doubt 
that this form of constitution is inherited from ances- 
tors who have indulged to excess in the pleasure of the 
table. 

12. The Anaemic Temperament is the reverse of the 
plethoric, I do not know of any other appropriate 



THE HEAD. 127 

word in our language that conveys the idea of a defi- 
ciency of the vital organs. The word anaemia and 
anaemic is nsed "by medical practitioners to describe 
indications of vital weakness; and it is certain that 
we see many persons who have well formed heads, of 
at least average size, who are so deficient in vital power 
that, without suffering from any positive disease, and 
without being decidedly lymphatic, they are constitu- 
tionally inefficient, and practically incapable of accom- 
plishing any important results. 

13. The Herculean or Ponderous Temperament 
is the reverse of the mercurial, and results from a large 
frame, large muscles, and large chest and pelvis. Such 
persons are not active, but they are powerful; and if 
the brain is large they exercise great personal influ- 
ence. Such a man was Washington. 

14. The Sanguine and Bilious Temperaments 
combined are indicated by dark hair and eyes and a florid 
complexion. Napoleon the First had dark brown hair, 
sallow skin and blue eyes; this indicates a union of 
vigor with endurance. 

15. The Mercurial and Bilious Temperaments 
indicates activity and excitability with endurance. 

16. The Mercurial with the Lymphatic Tempera- 
ment indicates activity without endurance. 

The different species of animals afford good general 
illustrations of temperament. The lion represents the 
thoracic; the beaver the pelvic; the greyhound and 
the hawk the mercurial; and the ox, buffalo and ele- 
phant the ponderous. 



128 MYSTERIES OF HEAD AND HEART. 

LAKGE BBAINS AND SMALL. 

It is a fundamental axiom that size is a measure of 
power, all else equal. Practical phrenology is rendered 
possible on this principle. The question is, therefore, 
of considerable importance: What differences are we 
to expect between the manifestations of two persons 
who, as far as we are able to discover, differ only in 
one having a much larger brain than the other? Let 
us suppose them at the same time to be situated and 
educated, and in every essential particular circum- 
stanced alike. In a word let us eliminate every con- 
dition of the problem excepting the difference in the 
magnitudes of the brains. The characters of the two 
would be the same so far as the dominant traits were 
concerned. The faculties that predominated in one 
would also predominate in the other. Now the ques- 
tion is, in what manner would the larger brain display 
its superiority ? It is evident that the differences 
must be quantitative and not qualitative: in other 
words, there must be something that both brains do 
precisely alike in manner, aim and intent; but one 
must do more than the other of the same things — 
must do it longer or stronger, or both. After some 
reflection, I am forced to conclude that the larger brain 
will continue in operation longer without weariness or 
a disposition to change or rest, provided the subject 
under consideration is important and worthy of occu- 
pying the attention. A large brain does not bestow 
great physical or motor power. Those whose brains 
are large perform less with their limbs than those with 
small brains. They think more and do less. They 
speak and act much less promptly or excitedly, 



THE HEAD. 129 

but more wisely. Mr* Darwin has remarked that ani- 
mals that can give the most attention can be taught 
the most easily. A large brain can attend longer than 
a small one. All animals, as well as men, can attend 
longer to those things that interest their largest organs. 
A cat will attend to a place in which she suspects a 
mouse to be hidden, and watch and wait a long time 
for her victim to appear; a dog will attend his mas- 
ter's footsteps, or wait for his return during many 
hours without his attention flagging for a moment. A 
man with some organs of the propensities very large 
and others small, will generally manifest continued 
attention to those matters that interest his larger 
organs only. But if the whole brain, and all its parts 
are large and well proportioned, he will attend equally 
well to any or all subjects that interest him. I must 
protest against comparing a large, ill-proportioned 
brain with a small one of very different proportions, 
or with one that is joined to a very different bodily 
temperament. Children and persons with very mer- 
curial temperaments manifest less continued attention 
than mature persons or those who possess less ac- 
tive temperaments. Persons with very large conform- 
ing and small governing organs have their attention 
easily diverted. Persons with large intellects and 
moderate temperaments are capable of longer attention 
to study than those whose intellects, particularly the 
reflectives, are small, or whose temperaments are mer- 
curial. Persons with large Inhabitiveness are less dis- 
posed to change the subjects of conversation or of con- 
templation than those who have it large. But when 
we compare a large brain with a small one we must 
distinguish between differences produced by general 
9 



130 MYSTERIES OF HEAD AND HEART. 

size and those produced by singularities of proportion. 
If two persons have bodies nearly alike, but one has 
much the larger brain, the influences of the emotions 
that proceed from the larger brain will be more contin- 
uous, and will, therefore, cause a greater drain upon 
the blood making system. We see this fact illustrated 
by those large headed, small bodied children, whose 
minds bloom so prematurely, and whose bodies suc- 
cumb so early. It is often said in such cases that the 
head is too large for the body, but no one has informed 
us heretofore in what manner the larger head operates 
to injure the body. Surely the mere exercise of the 
intellectual faculties does not injure the health if the 
emotions are mi excited. 

It has been estimated that the average quantity of 
blood received by the brain is one-sixth of that fur- 
nished to the whole human system. ISfo physiologist 
will doubt that an organ which receives so much blood 
must perform some labor of great importance. With 
this fact in view we can readily understand why severe 
and long continued mental labor frequently produces 
direful effects upon the health. When we perform 
bodily labor it is well known that the quantity of blood 
required and expended is in a definite ratio to the ex- 
ertions; when we perform mental labor the same rule 
holds good. In these estimates we must distinguish 
between the intellectual and emotional faculties. Mere 
intellectual study uses up but little blood, and proba- 
bly never per se injures the health or exhausts the body, 
provided the emotions are not involved. But love, 
anger, emulation, ambition, anxiety or religious enthu- 
siasm cannot be longed sustained without drawing 
heavily upon the stomach, lungs and heart. 



THE HEAD. 131 

PKACTIC4L PHRENOLOGY. 

1. In order to learn to make examinations, procure 
a plaster bust and a book and impress upon your mem- 
ory the definitions, locations, sizes and forms of all 
the organs, together with the class, range or group to 
which each belongs. 

2. Distinguish the organs concerning which all 
phrenologists agree, from those that may be consid- 
ered as doubtful or candidate organs, and suspend 
your opinions in regard to the latter. 

3. Acquire clear ideas concerning the traits that 
result from an uncommon development or deficiency 
of each organ. 

4. Learn the effects of various combinations of large 
and small organs. This is the most difficult task, and 
requires time, patience and good judgment. 

5. Learn the modifying effects of particular tem- 
peraments and bodily conditions, both from the book 
and from observation. 

6. Learn to distinguish the effects of the original 
temperament from the effects of diseases or unhealthy 
habits. 

7. While you are learning to examine, confine your- 
self as much as practicable to persons whose characters 
you know before hand, and see if the heads indicate 
the known traits. You can afterwards apply the 
knowledge thus acquired to strangers. 

8. When you begin to examine strangers do not 
guess at anything; confine your remarks to the organs 
and combinations that are so decidedly developed or 
deficient that if phrenology is true you cannot be mis- 
taken. 



132 MTSTEEIES OF HEAD A15TD HEART. 

9. If the persons examined or their friends dissent 
from your opinion, do not dispute with them, but 
make a careful re-examination, and if you have doubts 
of your own accuracy, do not be ashamed to say so. 
It may be humiliating, but it is your duty. If you 
have made no mistake in regard to the size of the 
organs, adhere firmly but politely to your statement. 
You and the dissenting friends may both be right. 
An organ may be small, and yet for some unknown 
cause it may be very active, or it may be large and 
inactive; perhaps a local disease or some ante-natal 
cause may affect an organ for several years. A young 
man in Philadelphia manifested a remarkable want of 
Firmness, which his head did not indicate externally, 
and the celebrated .Dr. McClellan (father of the Gen- 
eral) cut off a large tumor which had long pressed 
upon that organ. In this case the cause of the dis- 
crepancy was revealed. 

10. Do not attempt, as some do, to tell whether the 
person examined belongs to a long-lived family or not ; 
you cannot tell this by phrenology. It is true that 
persons with apparently well formed bodies will prob- 
ably live longer than others, but the family physician 
is much more capable of giving an opinion upon this 
subject, or any other relating to the health, than you 
are. The truth is that the causes of longevity are not 
yet known to any one. Who can tell why a robin dies 
of old age in eight years, and a crow in eighty ; a horse 
in twenty, an ass in sixty, a dog in twelve, and a lion 
in seventy? 

11. Do not pretend, as some do, to tell by the devel- 
opments of the head what organs have been exercised 



THE HEAD. 133 

most. When this pretence is subjected to a severe 
scientific test it fails. 

12. Do not pretend to tell what kind of a husband 
or wife the person examined should choose. The only 
rules known to physiology are, 1, that both should 
be well formed and in good health, and belong to fam- 
ilies that are healthy in body and mind ; 2, that there 
should be slight but not extreme differences of com- 
plexion, form, size, features and mental traits. 

13. In examining children you should recollect that 
the brain continues to grow until thirty, and under- 
goes a rapid and important change near the age of 
puberty. • The direction that the changes will take 
depends upon causes that existed several generations 
back, and are,, in a great measure, beyond our control. 
But they are not altogether so. I have no faith what- 
ever in the doctrine that after a person is twenty-one 
any particular employment or exercise of the organs 
will vary the form of the head. But 1 have very great 
faith in the effects of early training — especially in 
the effects of such patient, persevering, loving and 
forgiving influence as a judicious mother often exerts 
over the moral character of her children. . I have seen 
some wonderful instances of shockingly bad children 
converted to good men and women by the sleepless 
vigilance and exhaustless love of Christian parents and 
teachers. No one but an insane fiend can resist such 
influences. 

14. Children and youth are much oftener tempora- 
rily insane than is supposed — probably much oftener 
than grown people. Their conduct is frequently such 
as can be explained upon no other hypothesis. Instead 
of being punished or treated severely, they should be 



134 MYSTEEIES OF HEAD AND HEABT. 

pitied and restrained, as other lunatics are, kindly but 
firmly. We must not allow ourselves to be blinded or 
misled by the fact that such young persons show 
intelligence and shrewdness on ordinary subjects; 
all lunatics do this. We should consider that the 
brain is growing and changing; new propensities are 
coming into power, and revolutions are taking place 
in the character. This is especially true during sev- 
eral years after the commencement of puberty. I 
have observed in many of these cases that the body 
lias grown much more rapidly than the brain, and the 
higher organs of the brain are, to a certain degree, 
arrested in their development. 

15. In making an examination the intellectual organs 
should be compared only with each other and not with 
the propensities. So also the propensities should be 
compared with each other, and not with the intellectu- 
als. We may with propriety compare the whole intel- 
lect with the whole of the propensities in order to 
determine their relative magnitudes. But it is clearly 
improper to estimate the strength of a single intellec- 
tual by comparing it with the magnitude of the whole 
brain. Causality, for example, should only be com- 
pared with Comparison, and with the perceptives in 
order to determine its influence in the intellect. 

The principal object of an examination is to ascer- 
tain the relative influences of the different antagonistic 
organs in the formation of the character. But the 
Intellectuals and propensities never antagonize one 
another; the whole Intellect, and each of its parts, is 
the servant and guide of the dominant propensities, 
but never their antagonist. The Intellectuals only 
antagonize each other, the largest being the most in- 



THE HEAD. 135 

fluential; for this reaso«p they should be compared only 
with each other, in order to ascertain the peculiar intel- 
lectual character of the person examined. The pro- 
pensities that prompt to aggressive and energetic con- 
duct should be compared with those that restrain or 
moderate the conduct; thus Combativeness and Hope- 
fulness should be contrasted with Cautiousness; Im- 
perativeness and Firmness with Reverence and Kind- 
ness; Acquisitiveness with Kindness, with Hopeful- 
ness and with Perfectiveness. "When Hopefulness is 
small and Cautiousness and Acquisitiveness large, there 
is a tendency to engage in small and sure transactions, 
and even to be penurious. If Hopefulness is domi- 
nant it tends to hazardous speculations. 

16. If phrenology has had incapable expounders and 
imprudent friends, it has also had some not over scru- 
pulous opponents. The assailants of a new science, 
whatever may be their motives, often render it a ser- 
vice by pointing out its defects and weak points. 
None of the objections that have been urged have 
produced as much effect upon simple minds as those 
concerning several of the small perceptive organs 
near where the nose joins the forehead. It has been 
objected that there is a cavern in the skull at this part 
called the frontal sinus, which renders a correct esti- 
mate of the sizes of the organs impossible. Let me 
confess that in regard to these organs this is a real 
difficulty; but let me also remark that the sinus does 
not exist, or is very small, in youth, and only becomes 
an obstacle at maturity. When the time comes, as it 
undoubtedly soon will, that every person will be exam- 
ined in early life, and a record made of the examina- 



136 MYSTEKIES OF HEAD AND HEART. 

tion in the books of a permanent institution, this 
difficulty will entirely disappear. 

17. Another objection is that the perceptive organs 
are so very small that they cannot make differences 
enough in the skull to be practically distinguished. 
It must be admitted that this also is a real difficulty. 
Within a space, the radius of which is not more than 
an inch, phrenologists have located, or rather have dis- 
covered, as they suppose, five organs, namely: Indi- 
viduality, Form, Size, Weight and Locality; and, 
unfortunately, four of these occupy the very place 
where the sinus interposes itself between them and. 
the outer part of the skull. There is no doubt that 
several of the lowest organs of the intellect are located 
in this central place; a decided depression here indi- 
cates a serious delect in the intellectual character. Dr. 
Gall denominated this part the organ of the Spirit of 
Observation. His definition was judicious. Spurz- 
heim changed the name and called the most central 
part (immediately above the nose) the organ of Indi- 
viduality. It is defined as the faculty of noticing 
things without reference to their qualities. I can- 
not admit that there is such a faculty in the mind. 
When we have noticed the form, size, color, weight 
and locality of a thing, we certainly have noticed the 
thing. A faculty of Individuality is, therefore, unnec- 
essary. By examining extreme cases, we may be 
able to prove that organs of Form, Size, Weight and 
Locality exist where they are located; but in ordinary 
cases the examiner is forced to content himself with 
observing the general fullness and width of the part 
of the forehead where these organs are situated, and 
assuming that if one is large the others are also. 






THE HEAD. 137 

18. It has been objected to practical phrenology 
that only a part of each organ (each convolution) is 
immediately under the skull. There is some force in 
this objection, but not much. Show any artist or 
comparative anatomist one finger of a man and he 
will approximate very nearly to the size of the whole 
hand. Give a mathematician a small section of a 
circle and he will tell you precisely the diameter of 
the circle. 

Phrenology was discovered and established dv 
observation, and not by argumentation. It is founded 
upon facts derived from millions of examinations, and 
can only be overturned or improved by more correct 
observations. I never yet knew an opponent of phre- 
nology who became one in consequence of examina- 
tions. I have met a great many who thought that 
they knew without any investigation that it must be 
untrue. They remind us of the opponents of Gal- 
lileo, who condemned him without condescending to 
look through his telescope to see whether his new 
planets existed or not; they were sure that such plan- 
ets could not exist, and that was enough. 

19. It is furthermore objected that phrenology is 
imperfect, and therefore ought not to be practiced. 
What science is not imperfect? Is medical science 
perfect? The ablest physicians frankly confess that 
it is so imperfect as scarcely to deserve the name of a 
science. The homoeopaths, allopaths and eclectics treat 
each other with quite as little respect as they do the 
phrenologists. But they all continue to practice their 
profession in spite of its imperfections and their 
mutual contempt for each other. With what con- 
sistency, then, can they complain of the phrenologist 



138 MYSTERIES OF HEAD AND HEART. 

who imitates their example, by practicing his profes- 
sion honestly, according to the best of his knowledge 
and ability? This treatise contains abundant evidence 
that I am fully aware of the defects of phrenological 
science, and that I have exerted the limited talents I 
possess to remedy them. 

A reproach has been thrown upon phrenology on 
account of the practice of itinerants and others exam- 
ining heads for a fee. Those who raise this objection, 
however, are the very ones who deny that there is any 
truth in phrenology. The moment we admit that it 
is a science, and an art capable of being made im- 
mensely useful, the objection to itinerants vanishes. 
If the only objection is that the itinerants are igno- 
rant of this important science, and incapable of doing 
it justice, no one laments it more than I do; but I 
would remark that there is quite as much reason for 
lamenting the ignorance and incompetence of doctors 
and clergymen. 'No doubt it would be more dignified 
to make examinations merely to improve the science, 
but there are few if any who would devote years to 
such a thankless task. I regard it as a fortunate cir- 
cumstance that phrenology has become a practical 
profession, and that some men can support themselves 
by making examinations. It prevents phrenology 
from becoming obsolete, and tends to test the accu- 
racy of the observations of the founders of the science. 
If phrenology is at fault, who is so likely to know it 
and correct it as the men who have devoted ten or 
twenty years to making examinations? It is these 
men who have unanimously agreed that Time and 
Tune are unreliable organs; that Language and Num- 
ber, notwithstanding they are very small and theoret- 



THE HEAD. 139 

ically objectionable, are perfectly established, and that 
nearly all the other organs are correctly located. The 
only persons who are competent to give an opinion 
concerning the merits of phrenology, are those very 
ones whose daily business it is to apply it practically; 
they know that it is true, and therefore smile with 
contempt at the objections raised by those who admit 
that they never made any examinations. 

20. Phrenology, as a scientific system of mental 
physiology, is much more advanced than as a practi- 
cal art. It must in candor be acknowledged that sev- 
eral organs that have been discovered by comparing 
extreme cases of development with remarkable man- 
ifestations of traits, cannot, in ordinary cases, be meas- 
ured and their relative strength determined with suf- 
ficient accuracy for practical purposes. This is a valid 
argument against the perfection of phrenology as a 
practical art, but not as a scientific system. There 
are no advantages possessed by other mental philos- 
ophers that the phrenologists do not possess in com- 
mon with them, and the latter certainly have an 
important source of information of which the mure 
metaphysicians are deprived. 

PHYSIOGNOMY. 

" There is no art to find the mind's construction in the face." — 
Shakspeare. 

There is an impression on the minds of people who 
know scarcely anything of phrenology, that physiog- 
nomy affords a surer guide to a knowledge of charac- 
ter than phrenology does. I have studied both of 
these subjects with great care for many years, and 
find, as a result, that very little can be known by the 



140 MYSTERIES OP HEAD AND HEART. 

face alone. In function the face is related to the 
organs at the base of the brain, and to those only. 
The higher organs of the brain have no direct or 
functional relation to the face, and they may, there- 
fore, be large or small, without the face affording any 
indication of the fact. The form of the face indicates 
only a few of the lower — the animal — traits of the 
mind, and even these but vaguely and imperfectly. I 
have often seen a man who had a brutal-looking face, 
and who possessed the traits that his face indicated, 
but he also had the higher cerebral organs large 
enough to counterbalance the lower, so that in reality 
he was a noble character — such a man was Socrates ; 
such also was Luther. Again, I have seen a man with 
a similar face who was deficient in the higher organs, 
and his face really did indicate his character truly. I 
frequently see persons whose faces denote innocence and 
gentleness, but the higher organs being deficient, their 
characters are low and contemptible. This idea may 
be well illustrated by the head and face of Franklin. 
Let the face remain and surmount it with a low head, 
and in an instant the character of Franklin is gone. 

Those who have faces like bull-dogs generally have 
Destructiveness or Combativeness larger than people 
whose faces resemble those of peaceful animals. Per- 
sons with retreating chins and with teeth like beavers 
and squirrels, resemble those animals in their artistic 
and sometimes in their economical habits. Large 
nostrils denote energy, because they generally accom- 
pany good respiratory organs. 

The movements of the muscles of the face consti- 
tute a kind of natural language, by which the present 
passing emotions of the mind are often expressed with 



THE HEAD. 141 

great accuracy. Keen,' experienced observers are some- 
times enabled, by watching the faces of people, to 
infer their thoughts and feelings with, remarkable pre- 
cision. But a hypocrite, a confidence man, or a good 
actor can assume any of these expressions and deceive 
the shrewdest of men. The face can be made to lie 
quite as effectually as the tongue can, but the head 
always speaks the truth. The expressions of the face 
sometimes become chronic and fixed, so as to indicate 
habitual mildness, cheerfulness, melancholy, morose- 
ness, gravity, levity, and many other traits. These 
expressions may be hereditary, just as other peculiar- 
ities are. The children of refined and social people 
have different expressions from those of persons who 
have for several generations been deprived of the ben- 
efits of cultivated society. We frequently infer, the 
moment we glance at a face, that it belongs to an 
Irishman, an Englishman, or a German, but we sel- 
dom detect these expressions in their American grand- 
children. 

The face undergoes important changes as a conse- 
quence of development from infancy to old age. In 
childhood the jaws and nose are small, while the fore- 
head is prominent, especially at its upper part. Prob- 
ably the reason of this is that the child, being cared 
for by its mother, and fed mostly upon fluids, does 
not need the same amount of strength in its jaws that 
it does when older. 

We sometimes see a face upon a full grown person 
that reminds us of the features of a child, and in fact 
it is what is called an " arrest of development." The 
nose will be small, short and flat, or the chin retreat- 
ing, or the frontal sinus will be wanting, while the 



142 MYSTERIES OF HEAD A1STD HEART. 

upper part of the forehead is prominent. This is fre- 
quently seen in idiots, in whom the brains as well as 
the faces have been imperfectly developed. 

INSTINCTIVE FACULTIES. 

The bee, the spider and the beaver, without instruc- 
tion or experience, perform tasks which man can only 
accomplish after having had the advantages of both; 
yet men are in the habit ot speaking of their own 
slow and toilsome method as if it were immensely 
superior to what they contemptuously term mere 
instinct. When a poet, a musician, an orator, or an 
artist, exhibits faculties that approximate to those of 
animals in precocity and spontaniety, we hail him as 
a child of extraordinary genius. The genius of blind 
Tom for music is evidently of the same nature as ani- 
mal instinct. The fellow is in some respects idiotic, 
and nature seems to have developed one faculty at the 
expense of all the others. The musical faculty which 
he exhibits is not different in kind from that of other 
men; it is only different in degree. I have no doubt 
that this is true of all animal instinct; they do not 
differ in kind from the faculties possessed by man, 
but they differ in intensity, and in the fact that they 
require no cultivation or instruction. The quail, as 
soon as it is hatched, has the perfect use of its external 
senses and its voluntary muscles; it can run, and 
choose its food, and hide itself from approaching ene- 
mies. A child only learns to do this after tedious 
years of experience, during which it commits a thou- 
sand blunders. The human being can boast that he 
has the capacity to learn to do those things which the 



THE HEAD. 143 

animal does at first without learning. It is folly to 
speak of the superiority of human beings in this 
respect; the truth is that they are very much inferior. 
Now the question is, why should man be made infe- 
rior to other animals in respect to the lower mental 
and voluntary faculties? The answer is, because the 
young of human beings are eared for by their parents 
during several years, and do not need the full use of 
their mental and voluntary faculties. They learn 
slowly because there is no necessity for their learning 
rapidly. As soon as the child is born it is capable of 
seizing the breast and drawing forth its nourishment; 
it needs this instinct and it has it in perfection; it 
needs nothing else but the protection of its parents, 
and it has the faculty of crying aloud for that. These 
two faculties of sucking and crying need no more 
education than do the faculties manifested by the new- 
born quail. I believe that the law is universal that 
the less care the parents bestow, the more perfect the 
faculties of the young are. 

The capacity which man has for improvement has 
been regarded as his crowning glory; but this very 
capacity springs from his imperfection at birth. It 
requires several years of improvement to bring man 
up to an equality with many animals that are not 
more than six months old. It is often said that ani- 
mals have instinct instead of reason; it would be 
nearer the truth to say that they reason instinctively 
wherever reason is necessary to them. Their reason, 
like their other faculties, is limited to certain subjects 
and adapted to certain wants, but so far as it extends, 
it is perfect. Insane people, and patients who are 
laboring under temporary delirium, often astonish 



144 MYSTERIES OF HEAD AND HEART. 

their friends by manifestations of mental or bodily 
force far beyond their normal capacities. Mesmerized 
and entranced subjects, and spirit mediums do the 
same. The manifestations of great special genius, of 
partial insanity, and of animal instinct, may all be 
referred to one cause, and that is a highly exalted 
condition of some portions of the mental organism. 

PLAY OF THE FACULTIES. 

When there are no occasions for the faculties to act 
in earnest, and in accordance with their primitive 
purpose, they often become spontaneously and play- 
fully active without any real occasion. For example, 
the parental propensity, which was originally designed 
to impel to the care of helpless children, manifests 
itself playfully in young girls, and prompts them to 
treat little images as if they were actual infants. So 
also boys, who are naturally pugnacious, and yet have 
no real cause for quarreling, will wrestle and box, and 
strive for victory. In playing with a ball, they will 
divide into nearly equal parties, and contend long and 
earnestly, under the influence of the same propensities 
which prompt them afterwards to risk their lives 
upon the battle field. 

Young people are fond of manual and pedal exer- 
cises; and in the absence of occasions for useful action, 
their faculties will manifest themselves in dancing, 
foot-racing, skating, and other similar exercises. 
Young girls will assemble together, and play that 
they are giving parties, and they will imitate the fash- 
ionable parties of their parents. All kinds of plays 
are representations of realities, and the same faculties 



THE HEAD. 145 

are active in both the f representative and the real. It 
has been considered difficult to give a satisfactory 
definition of wit, but we find the key to it here; it 
is the playful action of the intellect and of Experi- 
ment! veness expressed in words. The primitive action 
of the same faculties is serious and earnest, and 
relates to utility or necessity, while wit relates only to 
amusement. Theatrical representations are properly 
denominated plays/ they give pleasure because they 
are a playful mode of exercising many of the mental 
faculties at times when there is no occasion for their 
serious action. Historical novels belong to the same 
class of performances, and so indeed do all works of 
fiction. 

The mental emotions are of two kinds, the exalting 
and the depressing. The depressing, (fear and awe,) 
require the solemn, terrible, and tragic drama and 
play for their gratification. These faculties require 
playful exercise quite as much as do the more numer- 
ous class of exalting propensities. There are many 
people who experience a " melancholy pleasure " in 
shedding tears and in sympathizing with the misfor- 
tunes of heroes and heroines in distress. They enjoy 
the thrill of horror which they experience when the 
beautiful and innocent Desdemona dies, or the con- 
science-stricken Macbeth shudders at the sight of his 
blood-stained , hands. Tragedies gratify not only the 
depressing propensities of Cautiousness and Rever- 
ence, but also the more savage faculty of Destructive- 
ness, which delights in the terror and misery exhibited 
in the drama. The spectators admire and sympathize 
with the hero, hate the tyrant, despise the villain and 
pity the "ictim at the same time, and thus gratify a 



]46 MYSTERIES OF HEAD AND HEART. 

variety of faculties. The depressing propensities are 
gratified by solemn, funereal religious exercises, inde- 
pendent of any sense of duty or obligation to God. 
Persons with these faculties dominant take pleasure in 
contemplating the tragedy of the crucifixion; the 
terrors of death; the awful magnificence of the judg- 
ment day; and the dreadful doom of the wicked. 
The pleasure is of course very much enhanced if they 
are fully satisfied that they themselves are among 
those who are elected to enter heaven in triumph. 
Ceremonial religion is often a mere play of the seri- 
ous faculties, without any necessary connection with 
sincere and intelligent piety; the solemnity of the 
performances contrasts so strangely with the vivacity 
and hilarity produced by the play of the more vigor- 
ous propensities, that we have been prevented from 
regarding them both as playful modes of action of 
faculties that were primitively created for very differ- 
ent purposes. 

This subject is intimately related to moral and reli- 
gious education. By managing the sports of children 
in such a manner as to excite the moral faculties that 
need cultivation, we can do more to modify the char- 
acter, initiate good habits and instill good principles 
than by any other means. In this manner they can 
" Be taught as though you taught them not." 

Those teachers who have the art, possessed in such 
a high degree by Socrates and by Franklin, of preserv- 
ing their dignity while they convey instruction in an 
amusing manner, are always eminently successful. 
For the same reason vicious and immoral men, who 
have an uncommon faculty of amusing, are dangerous 
companions for youth. 



THE HEAD. 147 

» MYTHS. 

"When we see a play or read a work of fiction, we 
gratify our propensities by playfully imagining the 
characters and scenes to be real. In these cases we 
are not in the least deceived; for we never for a 
moment think of treating the subjects of contem- 
plation as actualities, or of regulating our serious 
conduct by them. But there are some things, equally 
unreal, the existence of which many people have not 
the slightest doubt; they not only believe in their real- 
ity, but they allow them to influence their most impor- 
tant concerns; these imaginary existences are called 
myths. The Greeks believed in the existence of a 
multitude of gods; the Irish and English in fairies; 
the Scotch in warlocks, and all nations in something 
similar. There is scarcely any department of human 
affairs in which myths do not abound; they intrude 
even into the domain of popular science; its early 
history is crowded with them; astrology, alchemy, 
animal magnetism, modern spiritism, are suggestive 
of little else. There are few religious systems that 
are not more or less adulterated by myths, and, 
indeed, some are entirely composed of them. Many 
of them were originally adopted playfully, but they 
gratified several powerful propensities to such a degree 
that they at length came to be believed in. Our pro- 
pensities oftentimes become fathers to our opinions. 
Many religious ceremonies and creeds that have taken 
a strong hold upon the minds of people, owe a large 
part of their influence to this cause. They are myths 
founded upon slight and fallacious evidence, but they 
are entertained and fostered because they give occa- 



148 MYSTERIES OF HEAD AND HEART. 

sion for the playful exercise of many powerful pro 
pensities. The religious creeds of a people are gener- 
ally adapted to their characters. The higher and 
nobler phases of the Christian religion can only be 
popular among a cultivated people, while its mere 
outward forms and pagan excresences are suited to 
inferior and superstitious minds. Intellectual per- 
sons often wonder that men of good sense can believe 
in such absurd things, and upon such slight grounds 
as they do. The key to this mystery is found in the 
fact that the intellect is the slave of the dominant 
propensities. When the propensities desire a partic- 
ular conclusion, they blind the intellect to the truth 
that opposes it. We see this fact exemplified every 
day by political and theological partisans, and indeed 
by zealots of all kinds. The conduct of sincere spir- 
itists affords a good illustration. The following may 
be taken as an example: A man lost a dear and only 
son; while his feelings were greatly affected, he was 
informed that the spirit of the deceased had taken 
possession of a certain medium; he knew very little 
of spiritism, and thought it probably false; but he 
wondered if it might not possibly be true. In this 
frame of mind he went to a circle of spiritists, and 
from a writing medium received what purported to 
be a communication from his son. He did not believe 
that it came from him, but he fervently wished that 
he really could be thus favored. He tried it again 
and again until his wishes conquered his intellect and 
his prudence, and he became a convert. If his feel- 
ings could have been unbiased, the evidence would 
not have made the slightest impression upon his judg- 
ment. It is useless to argue with such a man. If 



THE HEAD. 149 

you succeed in demonstrating to him that he has been 
imposed upon, instead of being grateful he feels as if 
you have robbed him of a treasure. When Jacob and 
his wives deserted from their father Laban, and car- 
ried his idols with them, the only complaint of the 
unhappy idolator was, " Ye have taken away my gods, 
and what have I more? " 

It is the function of the senses and the intellect to 
receive and understand evidence; it is the function 
of Credenciveness to believe that kind of evidence 
which consists of human testimony. If the testi- 
mony is gratifying to several powerful propensities 
besides Credenciveness, and not disagreeable to any, 
we become prejudiced in its favor, and are almost cer- 
tain to adopt it as truth and act accordingly. If the 
evidence is contradictory, the propensity of Equity 
inclines us to weigh the arguments for and against 
fairly; but it is exceedingly difficult to do this if 
Acquisitiveness, Parentiveness, Approbativeness, or 
any other powerful propensity is enlisted on one side. 
Skillful lawyers, politicians and pulpit orators avail 
themselves of these principles in their public appeals. 

It has been said that there are more false facts than 
false theories. It may be added that there are very 
few false theories that are not founded upon false 
facts — upon myths. Logic consists in reasoning cor- 
rectly from certain premises; but logic does not ascer- 
tain the soundness of the premises; that is the func- 
tion of positive science. Metaphysical reasoning has 
been brought into disrepute, not because the reasoning 
was illogical, but because the premises were so fre- 
quently mythical. If the conclusions of reasoning 
are false, the resulting conduct must be erroneous, 
and it is oftentimes disastrous beyond measure. 



150 MYSTERIES OF HEAD AND HEART, 

THE BKAIK 

STRUCTURE DOES NOT REVEAL FUNCTION. 

Dr. Gall, the discoverer of Phrenology, never stood 
as high in the opinion of the medical profession as he 
does to-day. Those among them who do not believe 
in, or rather know nothing about Phrenology, admit 
his extraordinary merits. Dr. Flint, in his work just 
published, pays a just tribute of respect to the charac- 
ter and genius of G-all, and intimates that nothing but 
his Phrenological theories have prevented him from 
receiving due credit for his great services to science. 
Dr. Flint ought to make himself better acquainted 
with the facts concerning Gall's teachings. Gall never 
proposed any theory whatever; this was one of his 
faults; he mererly proclaimed the facts which he had 
observed. He did not attempt even to systematize 
his observations, much less to give any theoretical 
explanation of them. As for Phrenology obscuring 
his merit, the contrary is notoriously true. Had it 
not been for Phrenology, his name would never have 
been heard of beyond his native province. It was 
that which led him to examine the brains of men 
and animals, and to dissect them with such care 
and accuracy. He was desirous to know whether 
the internal structure confirmed the external indica- 
tions. The results surpassed his most sanguine expec- 
tations. Mr. Solly, in his treatise on the brain — a 
standard work in our medical colleges — says, " Phre- 
nology alone can account for monomania," and he 
proceeds to give his reasons for regarding it as true. 
He adds: "The first philosopher who attempted to 
prove that the brain does not minister to the intellect 



THE HEAD. 151 

as a single organ, bu£ as a combination of organs, was 
Gall, and I think he is entitled to the gratitude of 
mankind." 

When a few days ago, I requested Professor Jewell, 
of the Northwestern University, to refer me to the 
best work on the relations of the mind and body, he 
recommended the treatise of an English author, the 
learned and able Dr. Tuke,* I find that he has not over- 
estimated this excellent work. On page 158, speaking 
of Dr. Gall, he says : " Whatever may be the fate of 
the details of his organology, (Phrenology,) he was an 
original observer, a true philosopher, and infinitely 
superior to his critics." This is the language of one 
of the first medical philosophers of England in 1872, 
concerning a man whose name, during his life-time, 
was . never spoken in any college of Great Britain 
excepting with contempt. 

The scientific opponents of Phrenology, .or those 
who profess to be such, often endeavor to produce an 
impression upon young students that their opposition 
arises from their profound knowledge of the anatomy 
and physiology of the brain; while the truth is, that 
all the useful knowledge that they possess upon the 
subject, has been derived from the founders and advo- 
cates of Phrenology. 1. Gall was the first who taught 
Phrenologists that the passions and emotions are 

* Dr. Tuke, in a note at p. 25 of his work, does me the justice 
to refer to the testimony of one of my pupils, Dr. Darling, 
during his visit to Europe, that I first performed the experi- 
ments which were afterwards repeated by Mr. Braid and others. 
Although my first work on the subject was published in 1845, 
the experiments were performed by me in Buffalo, N. Y., as early 
as 1838, but at that time I had no physiological explanation 
to offer. 



152 MYSTERIES OF HEAD AND HEART. 

located in the brain; the highest medical authorities 
in Europe, including Bichat and Brousais, denied 
this fact, but it is now admitted by all physiologists. 
2. The convolutions or folds of the brain were sup- 
posed to be permanent structures until Gall succeeded 
in actually unfolding them and forcing his opponents 
to change their views. 3. The fibrous structure of 
the brain was not understood, and when Gall and 
Spurzheim demonstrated that the fibres proceed to 
and from the convolutions and the oblongata, passing 
through the striatum and thalamus, and receiving re- 
inforcements in them, they were shamefully misrepre- 
sented and slandered. The Edinburg Review con- 
tained an article by Dr. Gordon, Professor of Anat- 
omy in the college, denying the fibrous structure. 
Dr. Spurzheim visited Edinburg, and there, says an 
eye witness, " with the Review in one hand and .a 
brain in the other, he opposed fact to assertion, and 
that day won over five hundred witnesses to the 
fibrous structure of the brain." !No one now denies 
it; on the contrary every medical college in the world 
teaches it. 4. There are several parts of the brain 
the uses of which are now admitted to be to connect 
the different regions of the brain together so as to 
allow of intercommunication. They have received such 
fanciful and foolish names as the fornix, the tenia 
semicircularis, the ourlet, and the callosum. Gall, 
Spurzheim, and Solly, the three greatest Phrenological 
anatomists, were the first to point out their real struc- 
ture and probable uses. I defy any anatomist to men- 
tion a single fact in regard to the anatomical structure 
of the brain, that throws any light upon its functions, 
which has not been borrowed from the founders and 



THE HEAD. 153 

advocates of Phrenology. It is the custom of the 
professor of anatomy in nearly every medical college, 
during the term, to dissect a brain in the presence 
of the students, and show them the different objects 
brought to their view, describe their shapes and 
positions, and endeavor to impress these things upon 
their memories, together with the ridiculous names 
indicative of ancient and profound ignorance, by which 
the parts are known. But unless they admit Phre- 
nology to be true, they are unable to even conjecture 
the special function of any part of the brain. 

The reader will naturally ask how it happened that 
the Phrenological investigators were more successful 
in their researches concerning the structure and func- 
tions of the brain than their learned opponents? The 
reason is that they pursued a different method. In- 
stead of dissecting brains to learn their functions, or 
tormenting living animals for that purpose, they com- 
pared the external developments of well-known per- 
sons of greatly contrasted characters, and learned by 
Phrenology and mental philosophy the functions of 
the different parts; and then dissected brains, and of 
course discovered that the structure harmonized with 
the functions which they had already ascertained. 
Structure seldom or never reveals function. The 
structure of the heart, the arteries, and the lungs were 
known to Harvey and his cotemporaries, but this 
knowledge did not teach them the great fact of circu- 
lation. The structure of the brain did not teach 
Cuvier, Bichat and Brousais that the passions reside 
in it. It was the undignified method of examining 
and comparing heads, that removed the passions and 
emotions from the body and enthroned them in the 



154 MYSTERIES OF HEAD AND HEART. 

brain. 5. Knowing as they did that volition proceeds 
from the oblongata, they inferred that there must be a 
fibrous connection between it and the parts immedi- 
ately beneath the skull, they therefore dissected brains 
and demonstrated the existence of the fibres that con- 
verge toward the oblongata. 6. Finding that the 
cerebral fibres pass through and form the principal 
portion of the striatum, and also of the thalamus, they 
inferred that those two apparently distinct bodies are 
but the trunks of the higher cerebral masses that 
seem to grow out of them. 7. After Gall and Spurz- 
heim were dead, and Combe had published his last 
work, I was so fortunate as to discover that all the 
organs of the brain are developed in three classes — the 
Intellectual, the Ipseal and the Social — which corres- 
pond with the three classes of bodily functions, namely, 
the volitional, the nutritive, and the reproductive. 
This being ascertained by observation and analysis, I 
was at once met by the confirmatory fact that the 
brain has always been regarded as having three lobes, 
the anterior, the middle, and the posterior, and that 
each of the classes was located in one of these lobes. 
The structure of the brain and its division into three 
lobes did not reveal the fact that each lobe performed 
a distinct class of functions. 

8. Again: In attempting to account phrenologically 
for various mental phenomena, my attention was 
arrested by the fact, that notwithstanding the great 
number of nerves and phrene organs that communi- 
cate with the mind, the mind itself is a unit, in which 
one organ may predominate at one time and another 
organ at another. This being the case, these phrene 
organs and nerves should have some common central 



THE HEAD. 155 

point where they could meet and contend for the mas- 
tery and control of volition. In looking into the 
structure of the brain, I found such a central point 
in the oblongata. In 1845, when I first announced this 
idea, no one had suggested that Conciousness was 
located in the oblongata. 9. The structure of the sym- 
pathetic nerve has been known for a long time. Gall 
was the first to suggest that it is the channel through 
which the emotions affect the vital organs; his opin- 
ion has been generally adopted, though few seem to 
be aware that this truth was one of the first fruits of 
phrenology. This idea of Gall has been abundantly 
confirmed by the important discoveries of Brown- 
Sequard, and others. 10. It never occurred to any 
anatomist that the mental emotions are functionally 
related to the heart and other vital organs until the 
writer was led to that conclusion by studying the 
phenomena of trance. 

I have in the following pages gone more into detail 
in explaining and illustrating the anatomy of the 
nerves and brain than is usual in works of this char- 
acter, and I have done so not because I found it neces- 
sary in order to 'prove any of my positions, but to 
show that, so far as anatomy has any bearing one way 
or the other, it is all in favor of the principles which 
I have advanced in this treatise. 

TECHNICAL TERMS, 

AND THE NAMES OF VARIOUS PARTS OF THE BEAIN. 

The unprofessional reader who looks at the engraved 
representations of the brain, and reads below them the 
strange names that have been given to the different 



156 MYSTEEIES OF HEAD AND HEART. 

parts, will naturally suppose that his inability to under- 
stand the matter arises from his ignorance or stupid- 
ity, and his mind will probably be filled with some- 
thing like envy of those distinguished professors who 
are supposed to be skilled in such mysteries. Reader, 
let me hasten to relieve your mind. The most learned 
professors know no more about it than you do. The 
absurd names by which the different parts of the brain 
are now known, were bestowed upon them a long time 
ago by men who had no idea of the functions of the 
parts. Like the names of places in a new country, 
they were determined by accident, by caprice, or by 
fancy. It may assist and at the same time amuse 
the reader if I give the literal definition of a few of 
the terms used by anatomists in describing the brain : 

1. Medulla Oblongata — Something of an oblong 
form. 

2. Corpora Restiformia — A rope- shaped body. 

3. Corpora Pyramidalia — A body resembling a 
pyramid in form. 

4. Corpora Olivaria — An olive-shaped body. 

5. Pons Varolii — The bridge of Yarolius that 
passes over the oblongata and connects the right and 
left sides of the cerebellum. 

6. Cerebellum — Little brain or little cerebrum. 

7. Ganglion — A kuot or mass of grey nerve-mat- 
ter. 

8. Cineritious Matter — Grey, pulpy, nervous mat- 
ter, that is of the color of ashes. 

9. Corpus Striatum — -A striated or striped or 
fibrous-looking body. 

Thalamus — A bed. The original name was the 
Thalami Nervorum Opticorum — The bed of the 



THE HEAD. 157 

optic nerves. It is npw known that it is not the bed 
of those nerves; but the name — thalamus — is con- 
tinued for convenience. 

Fornix — A vault — fibres that assume something 
of an arched or vaulted form. 

Fissure of Sylvius — A depression that separates 
the anterior lobe of the cerebrum from the middle 
lobe. 

Vermiform process — The worm-shaped part of the 
cerebellum, situated in the middle line, and is sup- 
posed to be related to the motions or the equilibrium 
of animals and men. 

The Rhomboideum — A ganglion in the interior of 
the cerebellum that is of a rhomboidal form. 

Corporo Mmmnalaria, or Mammary bodies — Two 
small bodies that look like breasts. 

Tenia semi-circularis — A white skein of fibres 
that runs between tho thalamus and striatum. 

Crura Cerebri — Legs of tho cerebrum. 

Corpus Caliosum — Hard body — a bridge of white 
fibres that connects the two halves of the upper part 
of the brain. 

Pes Hippo-Campus — A part that looks like the 
print of a horse's foot. 

Locus Niger — A dark place — a mass of grey, 
pulpy matter in the crura cerebri. 

Ourlet- — Mbres that connect the anterior and pos- 
terior parts of the cerebrum. They are seen in Figure 
58, running above the Caliosum in the median line. 



158 MYSTERIES OF HEAD A15TD HEART. 

STRUCTURE OF THE BRAIN. 




Fig. 48. 

Figure 48. Side view of the brain, in its true position, show- 
ing the convolutions or folds of its surface. A, Anterior lobe. 
M, Middle lobe. P, Posterior lobe. C, Cerebellum — separated, 
from the cerebrum by a fold of the dura mater called the ten- 
torium. P. V. Pons Varolii, o, Olivary body in the oblongata, 
a, Anterior column of fibres, p, Posterior column of fibres. 8. 
G. Upper part of spinal cord, s, Frontal sinus — a hollow 
between the outer and inner tables of the skull, which, in some 
cases, renders craniological indications uncertain. F, Fissure 
of Sylvius, which separates the base of the anterior from the 
middle lobe. 

The disposition and directions of the convolutions, or folds of 



THE HEAD. 159 

the brain, indicate that the brain was first compressed laterally, 
to make longitudinal convolutions, such as we see in lower ani- 
mals, and afterwards compressed antero-posteriorly or from front 
to back, so as to shorten the brain; this is evident in all the con 
volutions, but particularly in those over the eyebrow, over the 
letter M, and over the cerebellum. 

The Cerebrum is enclosed in the skull, and corres- 
ponds with it in general form. It is sometimes said 
that we cannot judge by the external form and appear- 
ance of the head what is the shape of the cerebrum, 
or the size of its parts. The varying thickness of the 
integuments and the skull are supposed to render it 
difficult, if not impossible, to determine, with the 
requisite accuracy, the development of the phrene- 
organs. I can testify that it is a real difficulty, in 
some cases, where the head is nearly balanced, and it 
is desirable to apply phrenology practically in an indi- 
vidual case. But so far as establishing the truth of 
Phrenology is concerned, the difficulty is entirely 
imaginary; for when we are at liberty to resort to 
extreme cases, we can easily prove to the satisfaction 
of any candid person the reality of a large majority 
of the organs which I have set down as established. 
Those persons who still talk about phrenology not 
being true, are, of course, to be treated with reason- 
able charity and courtesy; but it is difficult to resist 
the disposition to intimate to them that such opinions 
belong to an age that has passed away, and are no 
longer deserving of respectful attention. 

There has been considerable dispute among anat- 
omists as to the best mode of dissecting a brain, to 
learn its true structure — the old school preferring to 
commence by slicing off sections, until the callosum 
and the parts beneath come into view. The new, or 



160 MYSTERIES OF HEAD AND HEAET. 

phrenological school, on the other hand, contend that 
the brain should be dissected from the oblongata 
upwards, to the convolutions. The truth seems to 
be, that human brains may be examined in both ways, 
with ever so much skill, without their actual structure 
or functions being ascertained, unless the simpler 
brains of other animals are made to perform the 
parts of alphabetical interpreters of the more com- 
plicated language of the human brain. Take a human 
brain out of the skull, and place it with the base 
downwards, and we see nothing but the cerebrum, 
with a part of the cerebellum, enclosed in a tough 
membrane, called the dura ■mater. Removing this, 
we come to a very delicate membrane, which dips 
down between all the folds of the brain, and seems to 
sustain the blood-vessels. This is called the pia mater. 
Between the dura mater and pia mater, if we are very 
observing, we can see a delicate web-like membrane, 
which has been called the arachnoid, or spider's web. 
The surface of the brain is folded like a piece of thick 
cloth that has been crowded into a small box. Cut 
into the brain, and we find that it is composed of two 
substances, the outside being grey-neurine, or cortical 
substance, extending to the depth of half an inch, and 
below this is the white substance, composed of fibrous 
neurine. 

Looking at the brain from above, we notice that it 
is in two equal halves, with a deep fissure between; 
and when we attempt to separate the two halves, by 
pulling them apart, we observe about an inch below 
the surface of the top of the head that there is a white 
bridge of fibres passing across from one side to the 
other, as if intended to unite them into one apparatus. 



THE HEAD. 



161 




Fig. 49 — Top view of the left side of the brain. 

Figure 49. A, Anterior. P, Posterior extremity. On the left 
side, the convolutions are represented, showing that most of them 
are transverse ; whereas, in the side view, most of them are lon- 
gitudinal. This is accounted for by the upper part of the human 
brain being more exposed to antero-posterior pressure, and not 
being as well protected by the skull-bones. 



162 



MYSTEEIES OP HEAD AND HEART. 




Fig. 50. 

Figure 50. Top view of the brain (from Solly), with the right 
half dissected away, down to the callosum, to show the fibres of 
this great commissure, extending across from one side to the 
other, and terminating in the convolutions. The left half of the 
brain, O, remains undisturbed. P P P, Fibres of the corpus 
callosum radiating into the right hemisphere. F F, Fibres, 
terminating in the convolutions. A, Anterior lobe. B, Pos- 
terior. 

This bridge is called the corpus callosum. Its 
precise connections with the other parts are yet 
unsettled. Foville declares that it is not connected 
with the convolutions, but that it proceeds from the 
crura of one side across the median line to the crura 
of the opposite side; thus making a kind of arch, 



THE HEAD. 



163 



which is analogous tb the pons varolii, that connects 
the two halves of the cerebellum. Solly, on the con- 
trary, contends that the callosum does not connect 
directly with the crura, but that it connects the con- 
volutions of one side with those of the other. Most 
anatomists agree with Solly/ but Dr. F. S. Grimes, 
(who had made a great many dissections of the brains, in 
order to settle points concerning which the authorities 
differ) assures me that in several instances he found 
that the callosum w r as composed of two horizontal 
layers oi fibres ; the superior layer could be distinctly 
traced to the convolutions of the lateral parts of the 
brain, as described by Solly; but the inferior layer 
was disposed in the manner described by Fovihle. 




Fig. 51. 

Figure 51. A transverse section of the middle lobes of the 
cerebrum, from Solly. The parts above the callosum, c, being 
sliced away by a horizontal incision; the posterior parts of the 
brain, X, are seen beneath in perspective. S, Section of the 
striatum, from which the anterior lobe is developed, c I, Sec- 
tion of the claustrum from which the middle lobe is developed, 
c, Section of the callosum. B, Fissure of Sylvius. 



164 MYSTERIES OF HEAD AND HEART. 




Fig. 52. 



Figure 52. Diagram showing the fibrous structure of the brain, 
and the direction of the principal fibres, as they appear when 
carefully dissected. 0, Olivary body. D, Khomboideum, or 
central ganglion of the cerebellum. C, Cerebellum, showing 
the arbor vitae, or tree-like structure, produced by alternations 
of white and gray neurine. T, The fibres that connect the cer- 
ebellum with the crura cerebri ; they have been called, by Solly, 
the inter-cerebral commissure. F, Olivary column, or optic 
nerve, connecting the optic ganglion with the olivary body. 
JV, B, Optic ganglia. G, Two geniculate bodies, which seem 



THE HEAD. 



165 



to belong to the optic gtmglia. They are about as large as cof- 
fee-beans, i', Anterior pyramids, or columns of fibres, that con- 
nect the oblongata with the anterior part of the brain. V, Pons 
Varolii, a, Anterior lobe, q, Posterior lobe. B, Restiform, or 
rope-form libres that connect the spinal cord and oblongata with 
the cerebellum. 

This figure, drawn by Mayo, represents in a very 
perfect manner the improved — the phrenological — ■ 
method of dissecting the brain introduced by Gall 
and Spurzheim. Instead of commencing at the top, 
as other anatomists do, and cutting away horizontal 
slices, the brain, after having been kept in alcohol 
about a week, is dissected from below upward — not 
by cutting, except when absolutely necessary, but by 
gently scraping and tearing and following the fibres 
from the spinal cord into the convolutions. 




Fig. k 53 — (c), Conscious Centre in the Oblongata. 



166 MYSTEEIES OF HEAD ANT> HEART. 

This figure is copied from Spnrzheim. It repre- 
sents the cerebrum as consisting mostly of white fibres, 
similar to those that constitute the nerves of volition. 
These fibres proceed from the outer parts of the brain 
and converge toward the oblongata (c). If we may 
compare the brain to a rose, the oblongata represents 
the stem of the rose; and just as the leaves of a rose 
converge toward its stem, so do the cerebral fibres con- 
verge toward the oblongata. The cerebellum, or little 
brain, like a smaller rose, also sends its concentrated 
fibres to connect and merge into the same oblong stem. 

Gall and Spnrzheim had no theory to support, as I 
have, in demonstrating this convergence of the cere- 
bral and cerebellar fibres to a central point — the 
same point that receives all the nerves of sensation 
from the head and body, and the same that sends forth 
all the nerves of volition. The illustrious founder of 
the greatest of the sciences, expressed no opinion con- 
cerning a conscious centre distinct from the phrene 
organs. I believe that I was the first to advance the 
idea that consciousness is located in the oblongata, in 
a work that I published in Boston in 1845. The 
engraving, Fig. 53, is the same that I then used for an 
illustration, and it was again used in another work 
which I published in 1850, entitled Phreno -Geology. 
I am induced to make this statement by the circum- 
stance that several eminent English authors have 
lately adopted my views of this subject. In a very 
learned and able work, published in 1872, by Daniel 
Hack Tuke, M. D., on the influence of the mind 
upon the body, I find the following quotation from 
a work by Professor Lacock : 

" There are phenomena, however, in favor of the 



THE HEAD. 167 

doctrine that the medulla oblongata is the common 
sensory of all conscious states — whether they refer to 
corporal processes or the purely encephalic changes 
associated with ideas." 

Dr. Tuke remarks: "It is striking to observe how 
many cerebral physiologists have arrived at the con- 
clusion that the emotions are connected in some special 
way with the medulla oblongata, or the adjoining 
encephalic ganglia." 

Dr. Tuke also quotes from Brown-Sequard, who, in 
1860, said: " I am ready to admit that the pons varolii, 
particularly by its part connected with the roots of the 
auditive nerve, is a portion of the centre of emotional 
movements, but not the seat of the whole of this cen- 
tre. The medulla oblongata is also a part if this 
centre." 

Referring to Mr. Herbert Spencer, Dr. Tuke 
remarks, that as respects the medulla oblongata, Mr. 
Spencer regards it "as the seat of emotional feeling, 
considered as a mental state apart from the movements 
to which it gives rise. Not, of course, that it by 
itself can generate emotion, but that it is that out of 
which emotion is evolved by the co-ordinating actions 
of the great centres above it." 

In my Phreno-Geology {Boston and Cambridge, 
James Monroe & Co.; London, Edward J. Whit- 
field, 1851,) I use the following language (p. 61): " It 
should be understood that according to my peculiar 
system of phreno-philosophy, the brain is not consid- 
ered as the organ of mind; mind, or consciousness, is 
exclusively confined to the medulla oblongata. The 
doctrine taught by all phrenological authors, before I 
published my phreno-philosophy in 1815, was, that 



168 



MYSTERIES OF HEAD AND HEAET. 



thought and feeling were performed by the brain 
itself, and that instead of there being one central organ 
of mind for a sensorium, each organ of the brain had 
in itself the power of feeling, thought or conscious- 
ness.. It seems to me that the truth as well as the 




Fi K . 55. 



Figure 54. An anterior view of the medulla oblongata, a, 
Anterior pyramids, c c, The olivary bodies, d d, Restiform 
bodies. /, Fibres shown by Solly to pass from the anterior 
column of the cord to the cerebellum. P, Pons Varolii, i, Its 
upper fibres. 5 5, Roots of the trigeminus. 

Figure 55. Posterior view of medulla oblongata, and back 
of the pons Varolii. The peduncles of the cerebellum are cut 
short, d d, Restiform bodies, (fasciculi cuneati ;) passing up to 
become inferior peduncles of cerebellum, p p, Posterior pyra- 
mids, v v, Posterior fissure, or calamus scriptorius, extending 
along the floor of the fourth ventricle, a b, Optic ganglia. / /, 
Superior peduncles of cerebellum, c, Eminence connected with 
hypo-glossal nerve, e, With glossopharyngeal nerve, i, With 
vagus nerve, v, With spinal accessory nerve. 7 7, Roots of 
auditory nerves. — Quain and Sharpey. 



THE HEAD. 



169 



beauty of my phreno ^central theory will be so appar- 
ent as to render it acceptable, not only to phreno- 
logical students, but even to those metaphysical phi- 
losophers who have hitherto regarded phrenology as 
crude and imperfect, for want of that very unity of 
plan which this system establishes." 

The oblongata is a part of ,-^reat importance, for the 
following reasons: 

1. It is undoubtedly the phreno centre, or seat of 
the mind. 

2. All the principal fibre:; of the brain converge 
toward it or diverge from it. 

3. All the nerves of sensation from the face, and 
from all parts of the body, in man and in all animals, 
can be traced into it. 

4. All the nerves of voluntary motion proceed 
from it. 

5. All tho nerves that convey the influence of the 
emotions of the mind to the heart and other vital 
organs, proceed from it. 




Fig. 56. 



Figure 56. Front view of the oblongata, a, Anterior pyra- 
mid. 0, Olivary body. D, Decussation or crossing of the fibres 
of the two halves. M, Restiform fibres. V, Pons Varolii. 



1 70 MYSTERIES OF HEAD AND HEART. 

Go r Ahe most intelligent invertebrated animals, such 
as the spider and bee, that have no proper brains, have 
this part in which thoir nerves of sensation and voli- 
tion centre, and in v/hich their mind seems to reside. 



THE STRIATUM AND THALAMUS. 

Each half of the brain contains a cavity or ventri- 
cal. At the bottom of this ventrical are two bodies 
called the striatum and thalamus. The anterior and 
middle lobes of the brain are developed from the stri- 
atum, (#,) and the posterior from the thalamus, (T.) 
If we slice away the top of a brain by horizontal 
slices until we come to the bottom of the ventricles, 
we have presented to us the view represented in Fig. 
57. I doubt whether the real nature and character 
of the sub-cerebral parts will ever be fully understood 
until the doctrine of evolution is brought to bear upon 
them. I suspect that there are many parts of the 
brain, as well as of the body, that have been developed 
in different stages, in different geological ages; and 
that their forms can only be accounted for by the light 
of their past — their geological history. 

Spurzheim says, " the posterior cerebral lobes pro- 
ceed from the thalami." Solly says there is scarcely 
any rudiment of the thalami in fishes; their propor- 
tional size increases in reptiles, birds, and in the lower 
mammalia. Again he remarks, the spinal columns 
appear to terminate superiorly in two large tubercles; 
the striata and thalami, from the sides and under 
parts of which the cerebral hemispheres spring out, 
being afterwards reflected so as to completely envelope 
the bulbous extremities — the thalami and striata. 



THE HEAD. 



171 



1. Phrenology demonstrates that the anterior lobe 
of the cerebrum, (the forehead,) is the seat of the intel- 




Fig. 57. 

Figuro 57. Top view of subcerebral organs; the cerebrum 
above being cut away. A, Anterior. D, Posterior part. S, 
Striatum. T, Thalamus. G, Cerebellum, v v, Parts of the 
cerebrum around the great lateral ventricles. #, Anterior cor- 
nua, or continuations of the ventricles. X, Tenia semicircu- 
laris. F, Anterior pillar of the fornix, where it turns down to 
form the mammillaria. B, Middle commissure. A, N, Optic 
ganglia. P, Pineal gland, with its peduncles, or connecting 
fibres. M, Place where the fornix unites with the callosum in 
front. 

This; figure gives a good idea of the relative positions of the 
cerebellum, thalamus, striatum, and the cerebrum; and it 
enables the student to understand how the ventricles can be 
formed by the cerebrum developing over the subcerebral organs. 



172 



MYSTERIES OF HEAD AND HEART. 




Figure 58. F, Spinal cord. B is between the semicircularis 
and the peduncle. G, Mammillaria. L, Fibres of the fornix. 
t, Fibres of the anterior pyramid, r, Fibres of the olivary, or 
optic, tract. S L, Ourlet. P, Striatum. K, Thalamus. M, Sec- 
tion of the middle commissure. is called the peduncle of the 
pineal gland ; parallel with it is tenia semi-circularis, a white, 
semi-circular skein of D C, Optic ganglia. U, Section of the 
fibres, running in a furrow between the thalamus and striatum. 
posterior commissure. J, Pituitary gland; just above which is 



THE HEAD. 173 

lectual class of faculties. Anatomy demonstrates that 
this lobe grows out of the small bulbous mass below, 
called the striatum. 

2. Phrenology demonstrates that the middle lobe 
of the brain, (the side of the head,) is the seat of the 
Ipseal or Self-relative functions, and anatomy shows 
that this lobe is developed from the posterior and 
lateral part of the striatum. 

3. Phrenology demonstrates that the posterior lobe 
of the cerebrum is the seat of the social propensities, 
and anatomy demonstrates that this lobe is developed 
from the thalamus. 

From these facts it is natural to conclude that the 
striatum is a lower degree of development of the Intel- 
lectual and Ipseal organs that constitute the anterior 
and middle lobes, while the thalamus is a lower .degree 
of development of the social organs that occupy the 
posterior lobe, precisely as a bud is a lower degree of 
development of the rose. Embryology and compara- 
tive anatomy sustains this conclusion. 

The next three figures are well calculated to give a 
good idea of the fibres, (commissures) that connect the 
different parts of the brain with each other. Fig. 48 
is a section of the brain, directly in the middle line, 
so made as to separate the right from the left half, the 
inner side being scraped and j)repared with great skill 

the divided optic nerve, a, Olfactoiy ganglion. JV, Crus cere- 
bri, or leg of the cerebrum. Between iVand J is the mainmil- 
laria, G, a loop formed by a twist of the fornix, proceeding from 
the thalamus. 4, Fourth ventricle. 5, Iter a tertio ad quartum 
ventriculum, or passage from the third ventricle to the fourth. 
These ventricles are of no account. S, Section of olivaria. X, 
Section of pons. B, Section of cerebellum. 



174 



MYSTERIES OF HEAD AND HEART. 



to show the directions of the fibres, that instead of 
constituting phrene organs, (as those do that we rep- 
resented in Fig. 52 and 53, are designed to connect 
the different regions of the brain with each other to 
produce harmony and co-operation. It will be ob- 
served that these connecting fibres or commissures are 
of two kinds, the longitudinal or antero-posterior, the 
principal of which are the Fornix and the Ourlet, and 
the transverse, that connect the right and left halves 




Fig. 59 



Figure 59. This is a section of the cerebrum in the mesial 
line, as far down as the callosnm, hut below that it passes to the 
left of the mesial line, so as to show distinctly the direction of 
the fibres of the fornix below the callosum, K. L, Thalamus. 
5, Section of the cms cerebri. 6, Niger. 7, Striatum. A, 
Fibres proceeding from niger to B, mammillaria, where the 
fibres turn down and up again, and proceed to r, called the ante- 
rior pillar of the fornix. G is the septum lucidum, which is an 
extremely thin sheet of fibres proceeding from the anterior lobe. 
E, Trunk of the fornix. F, Fibres of fornix descending to G, 
hippo campus major, and H, hippo campus foot in the middle 
cerebral lobe. /, Fibres of the fornix in the posterior lobe, 
passing over the hippo campus minor. 



THE HEAD. 



175 




Fig. 60. 



Figure 60, modified from Solly, represents the fornix in a very- 
perfect manner. A, Anterior lobes of the brain. P, Posterior 
The figure gives a good view of the interior of the brain, it 
having been sliced away from above, so as to expose the great 
lateral ventricle, m, Striatum k, Thalamus, t, Tenia semi- 
circularis. r, Body of the fornix, h, Hippo-campus minor, a 
part covered over by the fibres of the fornix, which extend to 
the posterior lobes. 1, An internal eminence, which somewhat 
resembles a horse's foot, and has, therefore, received the name 
of pes hippo-campus, or horse's foot. 2, Fibres of the fornix, 



176 MYSTERIES OF HEAD AND HEART. 

of the brain; of the latter, the principal are the callo- 
sum (c,) above the ventricles anterior and the middle 
and posterior commissures below them. 

In order to convey an idea of the order in which the 
different parts of the brain are developed and super- 
added to each other in vertebrated animals — the only 
animals that have proper brains — I have made a series 
of diagrams, the first of which (Fig. F) represents the 
lowest known vertebrate, the amphioxus, a species of 
small fishes that have nervous systems like other verte- 
brates, but no brain. They have an oblongata in 
which all the nerves of sensation terminate, and from 
which volition proceeds, and that is all. The crosses 
represent the aconscious spinal centres; (1) represents 
the terminus of the nerve from the stomach (the 
vagus) and the end of the Ipseal class of propensities; 
(2) is the the terminus of the nerves of the external 
senses and the root of the intellectual class; (3) is the 
terminus of the posterior column of the spinal cord, 
and the root of the social propensities. 

Fig. G represents the lowest vertebrates that have 
even rudimentary brains; (4) is a striatum or bud of 

which, after proceeding backward, and winding over and 
around the thalamus, proceed forward to connect with the inter- 
nal part of the base of the middle lobe. 

Note. — The objection has been made to practical Phrenology 
that there is a large space between the hemispheres in the mid- 
dle line which cannot be examined during life. But it will be 
seen by inspecting Fig. 58, (S. L.) that this space is not occupied 
by phrene organs, but by longitudinal connecting fibres. This 
objection, therefore, goes where many others have gone— to the 
place where it belongs. 



THE HEAD. 



177 



the anterior or intellectual lobe of the cerebrum ; (3) 
is a small cerebellum. The striatum and the verm, a 
central portion of the cerebellum, were created in the 
Silurian period, before any other parts of the brain 
existed. 

Fig. H contains all the parts that the preceding 
diagrams do, with the addition of a latteral develop- 
ment (5) which is seen in the highest fishes — the 
shark and skate. It is probably the bud of the mid- 
dle lobe, and is related in function to (1) the vagus or 
stomach nerves. 



Pig. F— 54. 




® 



Fig. G— 55. 



Fig. H— 56. 




. K— 57. 



Fig. K is like the preceding, except that it has an 
addition of (6) an anterior lobe growing out of (4) the 
striatum, and it also has (7) a small thalamus, or root 
of a posterior lobe, situated behind the striatum. 
This is the degree of development of the brain in the 
reptiles. 

12 



178 



MYSTERIES OE HEAD AND HEART. 



Fig. L is like K, with the addition of a middle lobe 
(8) which has grown out of (5) the latteral part of the 
striatum. This represents the degree of development 
of brains in birds. The cerebellum has also a lateral 
addition. 

Fig. M is like L, with the addition of (9) posterior 
lobes which have grown out of (7) the thalamus. The 
cerebellum is left out of this diagram. This is the 
degree of development found in mammels and man. 




Fig. L-58. 




Fig. M-59. 



A comparison of the human brain six months before 
birth, with the brains of animals, shows that at that 
time it only equals the degree of development which 
is permanent in reptiles. 



THE HEAD. 



179 






Fig. 60. 

Figure 60. Four views of a human brain, six months before 
the time of birth. A, Side view, a, Cerebrum, b, Optic gang- 
lion, c, Cerebellum, d, Oblongata. B, Top view — references 
same as A. 

G, Top view, with the hemispheres reflected, or pushed back, 
to show the sub-cerebral organs. 1, Oblongata. 2, Cerebellum. 
3, Optic ganglion. 4, Thalamus. 5, Cerebrum. 6, Striatum, 
imbedded in the cerebrum, as it is in birds. 

D, A longitudinal section in the median line, showing that the 
spinal cord and oblongata are hollow, as in fishes. It will be 
observed that the cord has the appearance of being bent up in a 
serpentine manner, as if to shorten and accommodate itself to the 
small space into which it is crowded. We can easily understand 
from this, that the parts in the back and front of the human brain 
are crowded out of their natural places, to make them occupy a 
shorter skull. 



180 



MYSTERIES OF HEAD AND HEART. 




Pig. 61 




Pig. 62. 



Figure 61. Ascidia mammillata, an animal quite as low in 
the scale of progression as the oyster, and is essentially a mere 
stomach, into which food enters at the mouth, a, and if not used, 
passes out at 6 / c, is the analogue of the oblongata of higher 
animals. Below the oblongata, is d, a stomach-nerve, or vagus. 
Above is a mouth-nerve of taste and motion. 

Figure 62. Crab-fish. 1, is the cephalic or ganglion of tho 
senses, which is situated above the throat. 2, Is a ganglion in 
which all the nerves relating to locomotion centre. This is sit- 
uated in the body, and connected with the ganglion, 1, in the 
head, by two slender nerves, 3, which, with the ganglia, consti- 
tute an oblong nervous ring. The ganglion, 2, is. in effect, a 
whole npinal cord concentrated into one aconscious ganglion, 
which surpasses in size the conscious centre, or oblongata, 1, in 
the head. 

The spider has a similar nervous system; but animals which 
are lower in the scale of organization, such as the caterpiller, 
earthworm, and centipede, have a great number of spinal centres, 
and limbs, which produce the same results in a much less power- 
ful, concentrated and economical manner. 



THE HEAD. 



181 




Fig. 63. 



Fig. 64. 



Figure 63. Brain of a codfish, dissected to show the con- 
tinuation of the spinal cord up into the oblongata, and then still 
further up, to unite with the olfactory nerve, o, Olfactory 
nerve, m, Striatum, x, Optic ganglion, a, Cerebellum, c, Ob- 
longata, s, Spinal cord. 

Fig. 64. Brain of the carp, seen from above. 1, Potentive gang- 
lion on olfactory nerve. 2, Striatum. 3, Optic ganglion. 4, Gang- 
lion, function unknown. 5, Cerebellum. 6. Auditory ganglion. 
7, The ganglion of the vagus. This fish is remarkable for the 
distinctness of its potentive ganglia on its nerves of special sense, 
and yet its striatum and cerebellum are very small. 8, Oblon- 
gata. 8, Spinal cord. 

Fig. 65. Brain of the skate, seen on its under surface. 1, 
Olfactory nerve, terminating in, 2, the claustrum, or lateral part 
of the striatum. 3, The striatum proper. Below 4, is the pitui- 
tary gland, which is very large in fishes. 5 Is the oblongata, 
which is very large, compared with the rest of the brain. 6, 
Optic ganglion. 

Fig. 66. Brain of a tadpole, or young frog, from Grant. 1, Stria- 
tum. 2, A small thalamus. 3, Optic ganglion. 4, The cere- 
bellum, which is very small. 5, Spinal cord. 



182 



MYSTEEIES OF HEAD AND HEART. 




Fig. 67. 

Fig. 67. Side view of the brain of the turtle. 1, Olfactory- 
nerve, with a large potentive ganglion on it. 2, Cerebrum, in 
which is inclosed a striatum and thalamus. 3, Pituitary gland. 
4, Optic ganglion. 5, Cerebellum. 6, A part of the oblongata. 




Fig. 

Figure 68 The brain of a skate, removed from the skull, and 
seen from above. 1, Potentive ganglion of the olfactory nerve. 
2, Olfactory nerve. 3, Striatum, or brain. 4, Clan strum, or 
lateral part of the brain. 5, Optic potentive ganglion. 6. Poten- 
tive ganglion of the vagus, or stomach nerve. 



Figure 69. Side view of the brain of a bird. 1, Oblongata. 
2, Optic ganglion. 3, Cerebrum, which conceals a striatum and 
thalamus. 4, Olfactory potentive ganglion. 5, Verm of the 
cerebellum. 



THE HEAD. 



183 




Fig. 70. 

Figure 70. Brain of a perch, side view. 1, The impresso- 
rium of the olfactory nerve. 2, The olfactory nerve, a, Yhe 
potentive ganglion of the olfactory nerve. 4, The striatum,, or 
brain. 5, The potentive ganglion of the optic nerve. 6, T'le 
oblongata. 7, The spinal cord. 8, The cerebellum. 




Figure 71. Dissection of the brain of a goose, which does net 
differ essentially from that of any other bird. On the right sido 



184 



MYSTERIES OF HEAD AO HEART. 



JV", is seen a fan-like radiation of fibres, which are supposed to 
be rudiments of the fornix. On the left side, M, are the striatum 
and the claustrum, so enormously large as to constitute most of 
the cerebrum. K, Is the small thalamus, which does not appear 
to be connected with the cerebrum ; yet, in man, more than half 
of the cerebrum seems to be developed from the thalamus. C, 
Optic ganglion. E, Cerebellum. F, Oblongata. 





Fig. 72. 



Fig. 73. 



Figure 72. Top view of the brain of a squirrel, the upper 
portion of the cerebrum being cut away, to show the parts'below. 
S, Striatum. T, Thalamus, a, Anterior optic ganglion. C> 
Posterior. D, Verm of the cerebellum, n, Lobulus of the cere- 
bellum, m, Oblongata. Here it will be observed, that the stria- 
tum is small, and the thalamus is comparatively large. 

Figure 73. Top view of the brain of a beaver. 1, Region of 
Constructiveness, where the beaver is full and the rabbit is nar- 
row. 2, Olfactory ganglion. 3, Verm of the cerebellum. 4, 
Lobulus of the cerebellum. 5, Oblongata. 6, 7, Between these 
figures is a small rudimentary convolution, indicating lateral 
pressure. 

It is an interesting fact, in regard to both animals and men, 
that, when they change from a pastoral to a mechanical mode of 
life, or from the condition of wanderers to that of citizens and 
builders, they become wider in the temporal region. Ethnolo- 
gists have lately made the observation, that the first inhabitants 



THE HEAD. 



185 



of England were not mechanics nor warriors ; and their skulls 
were narrow.' The next were warriors, and their skulls are 
wide at the base behind ; those of the present industrial ruling 
race are wide above in front. Phrenology will give a solution 
of all these various problems, and I commend it to the considera- 
tion of those learned ethnologists to whom we are indebted for 
these curious observations. 




Fig. 74. 

Piguke 74. Side view of the brain of a common cat. 1, Cere- 
brum, showing simple convolutions, or folds in the brain, such 
as would be naturally produced by pressure from side to side, 
and afterwards from front to back. 2, Olfactory ganglion. 3, 
Verm of the cerebellum. 4, Oblongata. 5, Fissure of Sylvius. 




Fig. 75. 



Figure 75. Side view of the brain of a fox. 1, Olfactory 
ganglion. 2, Oblongata. 3, Spinal cord. 4, Cerebellum. 5, 
Cerebrum. The brain of the fox is very much like that of the 
cat, but larger, and a. little more complicated in its convolutions. 



186 MYSTEEIES OF HEAD AND HEART. 




Fig. 76. 

Figure 76. Top view of the brain of the porpoise. 1, On the 
left side, the upper part of the cerebrum is cut away, to expose 
the sub-cerebral parts beneath. 2, The striatum, which is com- 
paratively small. 3, The thalamus, which is very large. 4 5, 
The optic ganglia — the posterior, 5, being the larger. The verm 
of the cerebellum, V, is exceedingly small, while the lobulus, 7, 
is very large. 8, Spinal cord. This animal, and indeed, all the 
cetacea, are remarkable for the great size of the thalamus and 
cerebellum, and the deficiency of the posterior lobes. 




Fig. 77. 



THE HEAD. 



187 



Figure 77. Top view of the fox's brain. S, Fissure of Sylvius. 
1, 2, Longitudinal convolutions — the transverse convolutions 
being merely rudimentary. 3, Olfactory ganglion. 4, Cere- 
bellum. 




Pig. 78. 



Figure 78. Side view of the brain of a baboon. 1, Fissure 
of Sylvius. 2, Anterior lobe. 3, Middle lobe, enormously devel- 
oped. 4, Posterior lobe, developed beyond the cerebellum. 5, 
Cerebellum. 6, Oblongata. 



188 MYSTERIES OF HEAD AND HEART. 

EVOLUTION OF THE MIND AND ITS 
OKGANS. 

Naturalists are at the present time divided into 
two parties upon questions relating to the origin of 
species, and especially the human species. One party, 
of which Mr. Charles Darwin is the most distin- 
guished representative, point to a vast number of 
facts which tend to the conclusion that all animals 
now existing are the natural descendants of a lower 
species that previously existed. The other party con- 
sists, mostly, of those who are influenced by theolog- 
ical considerations. They do not deny the essential 
facts brought forward by the Darwinians, but they 
demur to their conclusions. They say, " It is very 
true that upon comparing all the vertebrate animals, 
the higher seem to be mere modifications of the lower, 
but upon a thorough examination of the subject, no 
evidence can be found that, in a single instance, one 
undoubted species of plants or animals is the offspring 
of any other species. The facts that seem to indicate 
such descent or evolution of species, can be best 
explained by assuming that several plans or types 
existed in the Divine Mind, upon which it was pre- 
ordained that all animals should be formed. One of 
these was the vertebrate plan. Each distinct species 
of vertebrates that now exists, or ever did exist, was 
separately and miraculously evolved from the mind 
of the Creator in a manner which the human intellect 
cannot comprehend. The evolutionists admit that 
there is no direct proof of the production of one 
species by another during the short period of human 
history, but they insist that during the vast eons of 
geology the slight variations that are known to occur 



THE HEAD. 189 

t 

in species would so accumulate as to produce all the 
differences that now exist among vertebrates. The 
first scientist who distinctly taught this doctrine was 
Lamark, a distinguished French naturalist, and a 
cotemporary of Gall and Cuvier. In 1848 an anon- 
ymous author published " The Vestiges of the Nat- 
ural History of Creation" in which, with unimpor- 
tant modifications, he advocated, with great ability, 
the doctrine of Lamark. This work produced a 
remarkable sensation both in Britain and America, 
but it was denounced in severe terms by the leading 
naturalists, and especially by Professor Agassiz, who 
declared that no one would advocate such a doctrine 
unless he were ignorant of the very elements of nat- 
ural history. In 1850, I published " Phreno-Geol- 
ogy," in which I advocated the same doctrine as that 
since promulgated by Mr. Darwin, excepting that I 
assumed that Divine Providence superintended the 
natural evolution of organized beings. Although 
the work was stereotyped, only five hundred copies 
were issued. Dr. Jarvis, the histriographer of the 
Episcopal church, in a letter to my friend and pastor, 
the Rev. Orange Clark, declared that a man who advo 
cated the gradual and progressive creation of the brain 
from one geological age to another, was only fit for a 
mad-house. My publisher, Mr. James Munroe, of 
Boston, who lived in Cambridge, consulted with Pro- 
fessor Agassiz, and he denounced the idea in still 
stronger language. He asserted, what was then 
undoubtedly true, that no respectable naturalist in 
Europe or America held the views of Lamark, or any 
modification of them; and my personal friends ob- 
jected to the work, as impolitic, for the reason that 



190 MTSTEEIES OF HEAD AND HEART. 

the religious portion of the community would become 
prejudiced against me, and regard me as an infidel. 
The result was that I boxed up the stereotype plates 
and have them still in my possession. A quarter of 
a century has passed since then, and brought with it 
remarkable changes. Dr. Gill, of Washington, in a 
speech made at the meeting of the American Asso- 
ciation for the Advancement of Science, in 1874, 
stated that three-fourths of the naturalists now living 
are advocates of natural evolution. I propose, in a 
short time, to issue a second edition of Phreno-Geol- 
cgy, and submit it once more to the judgment of the 
world. 

I do not propose in this treatise to discuss this 
question, and will merely remark that the order of 
arrangement and super-addition of the organs of man, 
both bodily and mental, is in perfect accordance with 
the great law of evolution — the existence of which 
both parties admit — and concerning which they 
only differ as to the manner in which it has been 
executed. There is no positive proof that man has 
descended from a lower species of creatures, but it is 
nevertheless true that the whole constitution of man 
is built up by several series of super-additions or 
specializations, that are powerfully suggestive of the 
idea of a natural evolution and progressive develop- 
ment. 



THE HEAD. 



191 




Fig. 79. 



The diagram, Figure 79, illustrates this hypothesis in a very- 
general manner. The lowest space (1) contains the organs of 
those functions which man performs in common with all other 
organized beings, both plants and animals. They may be 
denominated the vegetative organs. In the second space (2) 
are the superadded organs which man possesses in common 
with the very lowest animals. In the third space (3) are the 
additions possessed by the highest of those animals that are 
destitute of proper brains, but have otherwise well developed 
nervous systems. In the fourth space (4) are the rudimentary 
brains of fishes, the first created vertebrates. In the fifth space 
(5) are the cerebral organs of the higher animals, including 
man. If we wish to cany this analysis further s we must resort 
to phrenology. 



192 



MYSTEKIES OF HEAD AND HEAET. 




Fig. 80. 



Figure 80 is made to convey an idea of the manner in which 
the Intellectual organs were -developed by superadditions. We 
may assume that the lowest division (1) was possessed by fishes 
and reptiles, and that the next two (2 and 3) were superadded in 
higher animals. The highest (4) is peculiar to man. Those 
who are most developed in the fourth division excel in profound 
mathematical and philosophical reasoning. 



THE HEAD. 



193 




Fig. 81. 



Figure 81 represents the Ipseal class of organs and is intended 
to illustrate the idea that the ranges or strata of organs were 
superadded in the order of the numbers; 1 is the corporeal 
range ; 2, the belligerent ; 3, the prudential ; 4, the industrial, 
and 5, the improving or human range. 



194 



MYSTERIES OF HEAD AND HEART. 




Fig. 82. 

Figure 82 is designed to give an idea of the manner 
in which the Social propensities received additions 
during the successive geologic periods; (1) is the cer- 
ebellum, or little brain. In fishes and reptiles, the 
first created vertebrates, the cerebellum and the stri- 
atum, or anterior lobe of the cerebrum, are two sep- 
arate masses — one situated in the anterior and the 
other in the posterior part of the skull. As the brain 
continued to grow, its additions were made to the 



THE HEAD. 195 

anterior portion in su«h a maimer as to make it expand 
laterally and backward until it covered the cerebel- 
lum, without uniting with it. This is probably the 
reason why the cerebellum is now separate from the 
cerebrum. In birds the anterior and middle lobes 
are one mass, or only partially divided, and the thal- 
amus is another distinct and separate mass, which 
afterwards, in higher animals, coalesced with the other 
lobes and gave birth to the posterior lobe (2). 




Pig. 83. 

Figure 83 is a diagram made to represent the manner in which 
the fibres from the right and left thalami — two distinct masses 
— develop backward to form the posterior lobe. 

Anatomists and phrenologists have often been puz- 
zled to account for the fact that the cerebellum is a 
distinct little brain by itself. If these views are correct, 
comparative anatomy furnishes the probable explana- 
tion. The brain as it developed from before, backward 
(Fig. 82), reached the occiput (2, Fig. 82) and then 
turned upward as it continued to develop until 3, 4, 5 



196 



MYSTEEIES OF HEAD AND HEART. 



were added, and I have no doubt some degree of all 
these are possessed by the higher animals; but the 
last development (6 Fig. 82) is certainly possessed by 
man and manifested in a manner which elevates him 
vastly above any other creature. This is the part of 
the brain that is so deficient in the lowest savages. It 
is an interesting fact that the highest Intellectuals, 
Ipseals and Socials come together at the upper lateral 
part of the forehead. 

Figure 84 is a diagram 
made to express, in a gen- 
eral manner, my concep- 
tion of the manner and 
order in which the differ- 
ent parts of the brain 
were developed. 

This theory of the cre- 
ation of man by superad- 
ditions is of great practi- 
cal value in enabling us 
to understand that i'n 
some idiots and in a great 
many semi-idiots and natural born criminals the devel- 
opment of the higher organs has been arrested, in 

1, In the oblongata, proceeds to 1 in tlie brain, to form the 
striatum, and then to a b c in the forehead, to constitute the 
intellectual class of phrene-organs. 

2, In the oblongata, proceeds to 2 in the brain, to form the 
claustrum, or middle lobe, and then to d ef g A, the five ranges, 
or strata of Ipseal organs. 3 in the oblongata, proceeds to 3, 
the thalamus, and then to I m n o p q r s t u v, the social phrene- 
organs of the cerebrum. 

4, in the oblongata, proceeds to 4 in the cerebellum, to form 
the rhomboideum, and then to i and k, the lowest social organs. 




Fig. 84. 



THE HEAD. 197 

consequence of ante-natal causes, and that special and 
extraordinary pains should be taken in their education 
and moral training. We can also understand that the 
higher organs are in some cases developed late in life, 
and in the mean time the individual acts like a mere 
wild animal in some respects, and like a stupid ani- 
mal in others, and stands in continual need of a guar- 
dian and teacher until near the age of thirty. 

THE POSTERIOR LOBES. 

An Objection Answered. 

A very plausible objection has been niade by Dr. 
Wm. Carpenter, of London, to Phrenology, drawn 
from the comparison of the brains of different classes 
of animals with each other and with that of man. 
Some animals possess only the anterior, and others 
only the anterior and middle lobes. of the cerebrum, 
and are destitute of the posterior lobes, in which 
phrenologists locate parental love; yet these animals, 
thus lacking in the organ, are not wanting in mani- 
festations of the affection. Birds, porpoises, and 

C, Conscious centre, or place where the sensory nerves and the 
mental organs all converge, to communicate with the mind. 

This figure illustrates the idea that the phrene-organs of the 
cerebrum are developed in three classes, and that each class is 
progressive, rising and branching like a tree, each higher branch 
being of a more general character, and adapting its possessor to 
a more extensive and complicated state of society. The figure 
is also a perfect illustration of the idea that the direction of the 
development of the Intellectuals and Tpseals is first forward, 
then upward, and then backward ; but the Socials develop, first 
forward, then backward, then upward, and forward again, fol- 
lowing the same course as the cerebral band, or fornix and our- 
let, and that the whole head is thus made of a convenient form. 



198 MYSTERIES OF HEAD AND HEART. 

rabbits, are careful of their young, but have no 
parental lobe in their brains. Dr. Carpenter remarks, 
" this seems fatal to Phrenology." To one but slightly 
acquainted with comparative anatomy, it will very 
naturally seem so; but I am surprised that Dr. Car- 
penter does not understand that it is really no proper 
objection at all. The following remarks will, I hope, 
make the matter clear and fairly remove the objection. 
1. The very lowest animal known to naturalists is 
that of the amoeba, a mere minute mass of jelly. It 
cannot be said to have any particular permanent form, 
but it has the ability to assume almost any imaginable 
shape, according to circumstances. It can protrude a 
portion of itself forward in the form of a limb; it 
can thus produce a dozen limbs; it can spread itself 
out into a thin sheet, and envelope and absorb what 
it wants, and then change its form again. This crea- 
ture occasionally manifests a degree of mechanical 
skill that is not surpassed by the beaver, and not even 
equalled by uncivilized man. We learn an important 
lesson here, and that is, that nature is capable of 
manifesting superior mental qualities without any 
special organs whatever that can be perceived. Next 
observe the spider; he has nerves but no cerebrum 
nor cerebellum, no thalamus nor striatum. He has 
something that appears to be analagous to the human 
oblongata, and that is the nearest approach to any 
thing like a brain, yet he surpasses the beaver in 
mechanical skill, the fox in cunning, the monkey in 
dexterity, and the tiger in malicious cruelty. He 
surpasses all animals that have brains, excepting man. 
What is the explanation? The answer is obvious; the 
spider has the organs of his mental faculties, call 



THE HEAD. 199 

them by what name 'you will, located somewhere in 
his body, in his nerves, or in his ganglionic masses. 
He has no brains; no animal has them except fishes, 
reptiles, birds and mammals. Fishes have what is 
called a brain, but it is a mere bud of the anterior 
lobe of a brain, and that only. They have what ap- 
pears to be the homologue or equivalent of what in 
man is called the striatum, and from which the ante- 
rior lobe is developed. There is not in all nature a 
more interesting lesson than that which is conveyed 
by a comparison of the animals that have no proper 
brains with the fishes, the lowest of those that have 
them ; and then a comparison of these with the next 
class above them, the reptiles ; and these again with 
the birds that are one step higher still; and then the 
birds with some of the lowest animals of the next 
higher class, the mammals, such as porpoises and rab- 
bits; then higher mammals — cats, foxes, dogs, horses, 
elephants, apes, men. 

The lesson that we learn is this, that the Creator 
commenced by producing animals with mental facul- 
ties diffused throughout the body, and without any 
special organs; next he introduced animals with ner- 
vous systems of the body, some of which are almost 
as complicated and perfect as that of man, but to 
these no brains are added. Whether these brainless 
creatures have their mental organs diffused through- 
out the body or concentrated in their nerves and gan- 
glia, we do not know; but there is no doubt that the 
mass of nervous matter nearest the head is analao-ous 
to the oblongata of man, and is their conscious centre. 
When we examine the brain of a fish, we find that it 
is only the rudiment or bud of one class of mental 



200 MYSTERIES OF HEAD AND HEART. 

organs, the Directives or Intellectuals. The propensi- 
ties of the fish are not represented in its brain, but 
are still retained in the body. Now, if we look at the 
brain of the reptile, we see that it is like that of the 
fish, but no longer a mere bud, for an anterior lobe 
has developed out of the front part of it, and has, (for 
want of room in front,) turned over backward, like the 
collar or cape of a coat. Now look at the brain of a 
bird, and we find that the lobe or cape has not only 
developed further backward, but it has a latteral 
offshoot, which in man is the middle lobe, and con- 
tains the Ipseal or self- relative class of propensities; 
still there is no posterior lobe to represent the social 
propensities; these are still retained in the body. Let 
us examine not only the brain of the bird, but of the 
lowest species of the class next above them, and 
we find in these no posterior lobe, but we find a small 
body called the thalamus, situated behind the stri- 
atum, just as the body of a bird is behind its spread 
wings. This thalamus is very large in all those ani- 
mals that have anterior or middle lobes largely devel- 
oped, but are destitute of posterior lobes. In birds, 
in whales, and in porpoises, it is very large, and prob- 
ably performs, in some degree, the office of a posterior 
lobe; for when we come to the animals that have the 
posterior lobe well developed, we find it growing out 
of this very thalamus, just as the branches of a tree 
grow out of its trunk. Let us continue this investi- 
gation further. The posterior lobe is developed back- 
wards in some monkeys more (relatively) than in man. 
And now we learn a lesson from Phrenology that we 
could not learn from any other source, and that is 
that the posterior lobe is devoted to the lowest social 



THE HEAD. 201 

functions, and that in the highest animals, and espe- 
cially in man, these social organs, that commenced 
their development in the back of the head, continue 
upward along the middle line, and then forward, pro- 
ducing the higher governing and conforming groups. 
Strongly confirmatiory of this explanation is the fact 
that the human brain, about six months before birth, 
has only the anterior or intellectual lobe developed. 
(See Fig. 60.) It continues to develope more and more 
backward until, at birth, the posterior is the largest 
part of the brain. Still the brain is low, especially 
in front; the highest organs are not fully developed, 
and will not be until after puberty. 



PART SECOND 



THE HEART. 



PHYSIOLOGY OF THE EMOTIONS. 

A1SD THEIE PROPER AND USEFUL INFLUENCES UPON THE 
HEART AND OTHER VITAL ORGANS. 

It has long been known that the emotions produce 
powerful effects upon the heart, but hitherto these 
effects have been regarded by physiologists as alto- 
gether abnormal and injurious. I propose to demon- 
strate that this idea is erroneous, and that the effects 
of the emotions upon those organs are functional, nor- 
mal, and highly important. That the undue excite- 
ment of the emotions sometimes produces injurious 
effects is certain, but the same may be said with equal 
truth of every species of functional excess. Physiolo- 
gists seem to have assumed that the emotions should 
normally confine their operations to the brain and the 
voluntary muscles. If they occasionally intruded 
their forces within the sphere allotted to the involun- 
tary and vital organs, such intrusion was regarded as 
mischievous and deranging. They do not appear to 
have had any idea of the important fact that the emo- 
tions influence the vital organs to compel them to con- 
form to the exigences of the mind. 

(203) 



204 MYSTEEIES OF HEAD AND HEAET. 

There are two classes of emotions — the exalting and 
the depressing ; one class tends to impel the body to 
act with energy, and the other to restrain or moderate 
its action. When an exalting emotion — anger for 
example — is excited, it not only impels the voluntary 
organs to act with uncommon vigor, but it influences 
the heart to increase the supply of blood to sustain the 
exertion. On the contrary, when a depressing e^ lotion 
is excited, such as fear, it not only restrains the vol- 
untary organs, but it influences the heart and other vital 
organs in such a manner as to diminish the vital 
action, and the circulation of the blood. 

PEELIMINATION. 

It cannot be fairly objected to this statement, that 
the increased vital action is caused by the uncommon 
voluntary exertion which is made when the emotions 
are excited, for in all cases the change in the vital 
action 'precedes the exertion. For example, when 
anger is excited, the blood rushes to the limbs and face 
instantly, and before the mind is made up whether to 
exert the limbs or the tongue in a contest or not. The 
influence of the emotions upon the vital organs is 
always of a preliminary and preparatory character. I 
know of no word in our language that expresses the 
idea I wish to convey with precision, I shall therefore 
take the liberty to vary the word preliminary, to make 
fr elimination and ypr eliminating, and use them to 
characterize the preparatory influences of the emotions 
upon the vital organs. The word vasso moter has been 
applied to the nerves that increase the circulation in 
the capillaries when certain emotions are excited, but 
that term cannot properly be applied to the restrain- 



THE HEAET. 205 

ing or inhibitory effects produced upon the blood ves- 
sels by the depressing emotions; and, besides, it does 
not convey the idea that prelimination does, which is, 
that the emotional influence is in all cases such as 
to prepare the body, and put it into proper condition 
to perform the voluntary actions that may follow. 

Before we do anything intentionally, we think of 
doing it; this is an intellectual process; in the next 
instant the action of the vital organs is changed in such 
a manner as to prepare the body for what, is to follow, 
this is an emotional process; then we do what we 
intended to do, and this last is a volitional process. 
Of these three processes, the two first are preliminary 
to the last. 

RELATIONS OF THE BODY AND MIND. 

There appears to be, at the present time, a strong 
disposition manifested by physiologists to acquire more 
correct ideas concerning the relations of the mind and 
body to each other. Until very lately the opinion has 
prevailed that mind, especially the higher faculties, 
were so entirely independent of the material organs 
that they could exist and perform their functions when 
separated from those organs. The body was regarded 
as the temporary prison of the mind, from which it was 
only released by death. Shakspeare expresses this idea: 

" Look how the floor of heaven 
Is thick inlaid with patines of bright gold ; 
Theiv's not the smallest orb which thou beholdest 
But in his motion like an angel sings, 
Still quiring to the young-eyed cherubims : 
Such harmony is in immortal souls; 
But wliilst this muddy vesture of decay 
Doth grossly close us in, we cannot hear it.' 



206 MYSTERIES OF HEAD AND HEART. 

In common language, when a man dies his soul is 
described as "taking its flight." Byron inquires: 

" When coldness wraps this suffering clay, 
Ah, whither strays the immortal mind ? " 

What will be the condition of the mind after death, 
can only be learned by Divine Revelation; the eye of 
science cannot see beyond the material world. The 
scientist knows nothing of mind except by experience 
and observation, and that is all limited to this life and 
this world. Let those who doubt the absolute depend- 
ence of the body and mind upon each other during 
life, consider the following facts : 

1. All the organs at the base of the brain are so 
directly related to the bodily functions, that they evi- 
dently must have been expressly designed by the 
Creator to serve the body. 

2. It is safe to assert that mankind, as a whole, 
spend nineteen-twentieths of the time of their lives in 
exertions of body and mind to support and gratify 
the body. 

3. The most powerful and constant impressions 
made upon the mind, are those that proceed from the 
body and relate to its wants. 

4. All the good as well as evil deeds, of mankind are 
done by means of the body. 

5. The mind and all its faculties is governed by 
physiological laws. 

6. The brain is more dependent upon the blood than 
is any part of the constitution. This is made evident 
by the fact that the brain of man is only one-fortieth 
of the whole constitution, by weight, and yet it receives 
one-sixth of all the blood, instead of merely one- 
fortieth. 



THE HEART. 207 

7. If from any cause — bad air, bad food, poison, 
bad digestion, intemperance, or inherited scrofula — 
the blood is poor in quality or deficient in quantity, 
the mind suffers in consequence much more than the 
body does. 

8. If, in youth, while the body is growing, the brain 
is very large and much excited, it robs the body of its 
needed share of blood and thus ruins the health. 

9. If the brain is very small, or is malformed, the 
mind is imperfectly manifested. 

THE NEEVES. 

Before proceeding farther with this inquiry, I will 
give a brief description of the Nervous System. I 
do not propose to weary my readers with a long and 
tedious account of the anatomy of the nerves, for it 
cannot be expected that any but professional students 
will take the trouble to master the details and tech- 
nicalities of the subject. But a general idea will be 
useful to all classes of readers, and especially to those 
who desire to acquire a clear understanding of the 
physiology of mesmerism and trance. 

Under the general term ''Nervous System," is 
included all the nerves, and also the brain; but as 
I have described the brain in another place, in this 
section I shall confine the term to the nerves proper. 

The nerves are, in some respects, like errand-boys, 
who are of no special importance themselves, and 
derive all their dignity from the masters whom they 
serve. All nerves perform one and the same func- 
tion ; they are the mediums through which dispatches 
are sent to and from important organs; this being the 
case, if we wish to learn the function of any partic- 



aYSTEEIES OF HEAD AND HEART. 

a,r nerve, we must inquire concerning the functions 
of the organs which employ it, and to and from which 
its messages are transmitted. 

NERVE SUBSTANCES. 

The word nerve literally signifies a string or cord. 
The nerves received this name from their appearance 
before their uses were known. 

The substances of which the nerves are composed 
are found in three forms: 

1. Tubular Fibres. These are small, white tubes, 
which inclose a dusky gray substance; the material 
of which the tubes are composed is called " the white 
substance of Schwan," it having first been described 
by an anatomist of that name; the internal gray sub- 
stance is called the axis, to distinguish it from the 
tube. Around the tube is a delicate membrane. Care- 
ful observations, by the aid of the microscope, tend to 
the conclusion that the axis is the essential part of the 
nerve, and the conductor of the nervous influence. 
The membrane and the Schwan substance appear to 
be useful as mechanical protectors and insulators of 
the axis. 

2. Fine Gray Fibres, without tubes, are found 
associated with white tubular fibres, and the present 
prevailing opinion is, that the gray fibres differ from 
the white only in being destitute of tubes or sheaths 
of Schwan substance. This opinion is confirmed by 
the fact, that, in some instances, the tubular fibres are 
without tubes at their extremities, where they are con 
nected with delicate tissues. It is also found that the 
fine gray fibres, mostly, if not all, belong to the sym- 
pathetic system of nerves. 



THE HEART. 209 

3. Gray vesicular neurine is nerve substance which 
is commonly found in masses, called ganglia, or knots, 
instead of being arranged in fibres. It is composed 
of granules, or small grains, in which are embedded a 
variable number of small cells, vesicles, or corpuscles; 
each corpuscle has a central nucleus, and each nucleus 
has a central nucleolus; in other words, there is a cell 
within a cell, and another within that. 

The ganglionic-neurine is of a purple gray color, 
and it has, for that reason, been named the cineritious, 
or ashes-colored substance. It covers the brain to the 
depth of half or three-fourths of an inch, and for that 
reason it was anciently called the cortical, or bark-like 
substance. From its soft consistence it is sometimes 
denominated the gray pulp. It is now generally con- 
sidered as the generator of the nervous force; and the 
fact that it contains a large number of minute blood- 
vessels, and also the fact that it is most abundant at 
the extremities of the sensory nerves, sustains the 
idea. 

There is no evidence that nervous and electric influ- 
ences are identical; but the nerves appear to transmit 
their forces in a manner analogous to that in which 
the telegraph wires operate; so also does the gray 
neurine appear to generate force from the blood, in a 
manner that must necessarily remind us of the gal- 
vanic battery. We are, therefore, justified in con- 
cluding that the nervous apparatus is similar to the 
galvanic, whether the two forces are identical or not. 



210 



MYSTERIES OF HEAD AND HEAET. 




Figure 85 represents a large nerve, consisting of many smaller 
nerves, wrapped up in a common cellular sheath. 1, The nerve. 
2, A single cord, or fibre, drawn out from the rest. 




Pig. 86. 

Figure 86 is intended to give an idea of the appearances occa- 
sionally seen in tubular fibres. 1, The axis, or conducting 
substance, projecting beyond the tube, and bent upward. 2, 
Membrane, and white sheath. 3, Parts of the contents of the 
tube escaped. 4, A part where the membranous tube is seen 
empty. 

The size of the nerve fibres varies, and the same fibres do not 
preserve the same diameter through their whole length, being 
largest in their course within the trunks and branches of the 
nerves, in which the majority measure from one-two-thousandth 
to one-three-thousandth of an inch in diameter. As they 
approach the brain, or spinal cord, and generally, also, in the 
tissues in which they are distributed, they gradually become 
smaller. In the gray, or vesicular substance of the brain and 
spinal cord, they generally do not measure more than from one- 
ten-thousandth to one-fourteen-thousandth of an inch. 



THE HEART. 



211 




Fig. 87. 

Figure 87, fine gray fibres, magnified three hundred and forty 
times, according to Professor Hanover. 




Figure 88, A and B. Magnified representations of ganglion 
corpuscles, imbedded in fine gray fibres, with several tubular 
fibres. 1, 1, Tubular fibres passing through. A shows some of 
the corpuscles. A, 2, With nuclei containing nucleoli within 
them. B shows large corpuscles covered by capsules of gran- 
ular cell nuclei. 

A NERVOUS APPARATUS. 

A nervous apparatus is sometimes called a nervous 
circle, and is composed of several parts, each of which 
performs a distinct function. 




Fig. 89. 



212 



MYSTERIES OF HEAD A1NT> HEART. 



1. The impressorium is the place where an impres- 
sion is made (1 Fig. 89.) 

2. An afferent sensory or centripetal nerve, which 
transmits the impression to a central terminus or gan- 
glion (4.) 

3. A potentive or power-giving ganglion, which is 
found on nearly all nerves of sensation, and which 
probably have the power to act on the capillary blood- 
vessels, and increase the circulation in a nerve of sen- 
sation when it is exercised for a long time and needs 
sustaining. 

5. A motor nerve. 6, A muscular terminus. 

A commissure is a set of fibres that pass from one 
nervous apparatus on one side of the body or brain to 
a corresponding apparatus on the opposite side, in 
order to make the two sides act in concert. 




Fig. 90.- 

Figure 90. Magnified view of the upper surface of a segment 
of the spinal cord of an insect, (the spiro-streptus, from New- 
port,) to illustrate the nature of a commissure. 1, 1, The median 
line which divides the right side from the left. 2, 2, The nerves 
that are connected with the limhs. 3, The commissure, or set 
of nerve fibres that connect a limb of one side with a limb of 
the opposite side, so that an impression made on either side can 
communicate motion to the opposite. 



THE HEAET. 213 

DIVISION OF THE NERVOUS SYSTEM. 

When treating of a complicated subject, a good 
general division, even if it is not quite precise, is 
oftentimes a great help to the understanding. The 
functions of the whole human constitution may be 
divided into those that relate to the external world, 
and those that relate to the internal (or vital) opera- 
tions. To the external department belong the exter- 
nal senses, and the limbs and muscles of voluntary 
motion that enable us to act upon the things about 
us; to the internal belong all the organs concerned in 
the manufacture and circulation of the blood and the 
maintenance of mere vegetative life. The Xervous 
System, including all the nerves of the whole constitu- 
tion, are susceptible of the same general division into 
those that relate to the external world, and those that 
relate to the internal vital organs. 

Both of these systems of nerves have a common 
center in the oblongata, the organ of consciousness. 
One system, the external, is related to the intellect 
and the will; and the other, the internal, to the emo- 
tions alone. One system may be said to be related to 
the voluntary functions of the brain and the other to 
its involuntary. Man is so constituted that his brain 
cannot act upon the external without his. will — his 
whole mind — deliberating upon and guiding the 
actions, but his brain acts upon his internal organs — 
his heart, arteries, stomach, liver and kidneys — with- 
out his will, but not without his consciousness. The 
reason of this distinction is that a single propensity 
can act alone upon the vital functions, independent 
of the intellect or the will, but it cannot act upon the 



214 



MYSTERIES OF HEAD AND HEAET. 



external world without 

thus giving notice of its 

Fig. 91 represents the 



Fig. 91. 



exciting consciousness, and 
intention. 

main trunk of the external 
system of nerves, and Fig. 
92 represents the main trunk 
of the internal system. Al- 
though the nerves of the 
two systems often intermin- 
gle, and seem confounded 
together, they are always per- 
fectly distinct and independ- 
ent of each other in function. 
I have introduced several 
engravings to show the po- 
sitions and complications of 
the two systems; but the 
only fact that has an impor- 
tant bearing upon the subject 
of this treatise is that there 
is a distinct system of nerves, 
Fig. 92 and Fig. 93, (com- 
monly called the sympathet- 
ic,) the office of which is to 
convey emotional influences 
from the propensities in the 
brain to the heart, and other 
vital organs in order to make 
them co-operate with the 
mind. I could not convey 
this idea in a satisfactory 
manner without giving a 
good general description of 
the whole nervous system. 



THE HEART. 215 

t 

Figure 91. Diagram representing an outline of an anterior 
view of the cranio-spinal axis. 

The series of crosses in the middle line represent the spinal 
reflex, or aconscious centers. 

There are thirty-one pairs of nerves connected with the spinal 
centres ; each nerve has two roots — an anterior, or motor, and a 
posterior, or sensory root. Each posterior root has a swelling, 
or ganglion, upon it. The two roots unite to form a spinal 
nerve. Each root has fibres which connect it with the spinal 
cord, and which, when excited, act aconsciously; that is to say, 
they act independently of the mind. Beside these, each spinal 
nerve has other fibres that extend up and down through the 
spinal cord to and from the oblongata, to act in concert with 
the mind. 

Figure 92. Side view of the intercorcl or sympathetic nerve, 
with its series of ganglia, extending from the lower part of the 
trunk of the body, where &, the ganglion impar, as it is called, 
is situated, to n, the ophthalmic ganglion, below which are o, 
spheno-palatine ganglion ; p, otic, q, submaxillary, a, Superior 
cervical ganglion, remarkable for its connections with the vagus 
and the trigeminus, and its influence on the nutrition of the 
facial nerves of the senses. (See Brown-Sequarcfs Treatise.) 
a d e These three ganglia are on the fibres that proceed from the 
brain to the heart and lungs, along with the vagus. The cords 
that proceed anteriorly from the ganglia to the semi-lunar gang- 
lion, S, are called the splanchnic nerves. V is the situation of 
the stomach, and in connection with 8, is the vital centre from 
which the whole organism is developed, and on which it de- 
pends. The nerves in the vicinity of 8 are called the solar 
plexus, m, Mesenteric plexus, an offset from 8. S, Kenal 
plexus. H, Hypogastric plexus. The mesh of fibres near the 
heart is called the cardiac plexus and pulmonary plexus, and 
relates to the heart and lungs. Between a and q are fibres of the 
pharyngeal plexus that relate to the vocal organs. 

Figure 93. This diagram represents the intercords, or sympa- 
thetic nerves of the two sides, as drawn further apart than 
natural, to show the manner in which the nerves or cords, from 
the brain and from the ganglia converge to the middle line of 
the body, to form the prevertebral plexuses. No drawing that I 
have ever seen gives as just and clear an idea of the sympathetic 
system as this does ; though of course the details are omitted. 



216 MYSTERIES OF HEAD AND HEART. 







-5 






Fig. 93. Fig. 93. 

a, Place of the eye. 6, Place of the nose, e, Place of the 
mouth, d, Ganglion of Ribes, which is sometimes absent. 1, 
Ophthalmic ganglion. 2, Spheno-palatine ganglion. 3, Naso- 



THE HEART. 



217 



palatine. 4, Otic. 5, Submaxillary. 6, Superior cervical. The 
two ganglia between 6 and 7 are the middle and lower cervical ; 
and, from the three, it will be seen that branches proceed from 
each side to the heart, to form e, the cardiac plexus. Thus it 
can easily be understood that mental influences reach the heart 
through these three branches. From 7 to 8, the ganglia are 
called the thoracic ; from 8 to 9, the lumbar ; and from 9 to 10, 
the sacral. Below 10, in the centre, is the ganglion impar, in 
which the right and left intercords unite. P is the pharyngeal 
plexus, that supplies the throat. V Is the vital centre; and 
below it is S, the semi-lunar ganglion. B, The renal plexus. 
m, Mesenteric plexus. E, The hypo-gastric. 

l 
3 amp. 




Figure 94. Diagram to show the connections of the spinal 
cord and its nerves, with the sympathetic intercord, and its 
branches. B B B, Three of the vertebral bones. One of the 



218 



MYSTERIES OF HEAD AND HEART. 



bones is left out, to show the connections of the nerves. 1, Spinal 
cord, extending through the vertebral canal, amp, Anterior, 
middle, and posterior columns of the spinal cord. 2 2, Inter- 
cord. 3, One of the ganglia on the intercord. 4 V, Splanchnic 
nerves, proceeding to and from the brain, and from the series 
of ganglia to the viscera. 5, Short trunk of the spinal nerve. 
6, Anterior, or motor, root of spinal nerve. 7, Posterior, or sen- 
sory root of spinal nerve. 8, Anterior branch of spinal nerve.' 
9, Posterior branch, going to be distributed to the back, without 
forming any connection with the intercord. 10, Ganglion on the 
posterior root of spinal nerve. 11 and 12, Short cords, through 
which the spinal and the sjnnpathetic communicate fibres to 
each other. 




Pig. 95. 
Figure 95. Ideal transverse section of the vertebra, spinal 
cord, intercord, vital centre, and spinal nerves, to show their 



THE HEAET. 



219 



connections. B, Bone of the vertebra. 1, Section of the spinal 
cord. 2, Section of the intercord. 4, Splanchnic nerve that 
connects the intercord with the vital centre. 5, Trunk of spinal 
nerve. 6, Anterior, or motor root of spinal nerve. 7, Posterior 
root, showing the place of its connection with the spinal cord. 
10, Ganglion on posterior root. 8, Branch of spinal nerve, 
going to be distributed in front. 9, Posterior branch, going to 
be distributed to the back. 11 and 12, Short cords that connect 
the spinal cord with the intercord. 




Fig. 96. 

Figure 96. Diagram showing the principal nervous centres, 
their relative positions and arrangements. The posterior series — 
the crosses — represent the centres placed in the spinal cord ; one 
centre being reckoned for each vertebra. The middle series, 
represented in the diagram by small circles, are the ganglia on 



220 MYSTEEIES OF HEAD AND HEART. 

the posterior roots of the spinal nerves. The real use of these 
are undetermined, but they are probably designed to act upon 
the capillary blood vessels, to regulate the circulation in the 
nerves of sensation, increasing it when the nerves have extra- 
ordinary labor to perform. I do not believe that any ganglia 
are found on any nerves of motion. The anterior series— the 
dashes — represent the ganglia, which are attached to the inter- 
cord, or sympathetic nerve. The star at the top of the series of 
crosses indicates the place of the conscious centre. The letters 
and dots in the face, and in the anterior part of the body, repre- 
sent the ganglia which are specially related to the vital func- 
tions in their immediate vicinity, a, The situation of the 
opthalmic, or lenticular, ganglion, h, Spheno palatine, c, 
Naso palatine, d, Otic, e, Submaxillary, f, The place of the 
phaiyngeal plexus, g, The cardiac, h, The solar plexus and 
vital centre, i, The renal plexus, j, The hypogastric. 




Figure 97. Diagram of the base of the human brain, and the 
cranial nerves. A, Base of the anterior lobe, in which the lower 



THE HEAET. 221 

IS 

Directive organs are located. M, Base of the middle lobe, in 
which the lower Ipseal organs are situated. P, Base of the pos- 
terior lobe, in which the lower Social organs are situated. G, 
Base of the cerebellum. S C, Spinal cord, the upper part of 
which is the oblongata, d, Decussation, or crossing of some 
fibres of the lower part of the oblongata, from one side to the 
other, which is supposed to account for injuries in one side of 
the body, producing paralysis on the other side, a, Anterior 
pyramid or column of the oblongata, o, Olivaria, or olivary 
body. P. V. Pons Varolii, or bridge of Varolius, which con- 
nects the two halves of the cerebellum, x , Commissure, or 
place of junction of the two optic nerves. F, Fissure of Sylvius, 
which divides the anterior from the middle lobe. 

The numerals indicate the twelve cranial neiwes, as they are 
enumerated in the text. 1, The Olfactory. 2, The Optic. 3, 
The Oculo-motor, that moves the eye upward, inward, and 
downward. 4, The Patheticus, that moves the eye a little in- 
ward and upward. 5, The Trigeminus, that gives sensibility to 
the face, moves the jaw, and gives the sense of taste to the fore 
part of the tongue. 6, The Abducens, that moves the eye out- 
ward. 7, The Auditory. 8, The Facial, that moves the face, in 
expression. 9, The Glossopharyngeal, that gives general sensi- 
bility to the throat, and taste to the back part of the tongue. 10, 
The Vagus, or Pneumo-gastric, that gives the sensations of hun- 
ger, thirst, suffocation, and pain from the nutritive viscera. 11, 
Accessory, that moves the lungs. 12, Hypo-glossal, that moves 
the tongue. 

Note. — By irritating the sympathetic after the death of an 
animal, contraction may be excited in any part of the alimentary 
canal — in the heart, aorta * * * thoracic duct, ductus, chole- 
doctus, uterus, fallopian tubes vas deferens and vesicular semi- 
nales. But the very same contractions may be produced by 
irritating the roots of the spinal nerves from which the sympa- 
thetic trunks receive their white fibers. — Carpenter's Physiology. 



222 MYSTEEIES OF HEAD AND HEART. 




Pig. 98. 

Figure 98. A, Vagus, or pneumo-gastric. B, Glossopharyn- 
geal. C, Trigeminus. H, Heart. 8, Stomach. 1, Gasserian 
ganglion on the trigeminus. 2, Jugular ganglion on the glosso- 
pharyngeal. 3, Petrous ganglion. 4, Ganglion of the root of 
the vagus. 5, Ganglion of the trunk of the vagus. 6, Upper, 
or opthalmic branch of the trigeminus. 7, Middle, or upper 
maxillary branch. 8, Lower maxillary branch. 10, Nerve that 
moves the jaw. 11, Cardiac branch of the vagus, connected 



THE HEAET. 223 

with the heart. 12, Puhnonary branch, connected with the 
lungs. 13, Gastric branch distributed upon the stomach. 14, 
The oblongata, or centre of all the sensory nerves, and phreno- 
organs. The diagram shows that though these nerves originate 
from very different and distant parts of the face and body, they 
all meet in the oblongata, thus demonstrating its importance. 

LOCATIONS AND FUNCTIONS OF THE EMOTIONS. 

The highest modern authorities are now agreed that 
all the mental faculties, including the emotions, are 
located in some part of the brain. Prof. William 
Hammond, of Bellevue College, N". Y., says: "The 
mind, under which term is included the intellect, the 
emotions, and the will, is ordinarily supposed to have 
its seat wholly in the brain.* Dr. Gall was the first 
to teach this fact. Bronsais, the cotemporary of Gall, 
and one of the most distinguished physiologists of 
Europe, in his earlier writings opposed the doctrines 
of Gall. He said: 

' Prof. Richerand sides with Cabanis in referring the instinct- 
ive determinations (propensities) to the viscera; and the truth of 
this fact seems to be no longer doubted by any one except Gall.' 

Bronsais afterward not only became a convert to Gall's 
views, but wrote a splendid work advocating and illus- 

* Those physiologists who ignore phrenology, do not agree 
among themselves as to what part of the brain is the seat of the 
emotions. Some locate them in the oblongata, others in the 
pons varolii, and a few, including Dr. Carpenter, in the sub- 
cerebral ganglia. Their reasons for these locations are merely 
conjectural or fanciful, whereas the phrenologists found their 
conclusions upon positive observations. They point to the fact 
that temperament, health, and all else equal, the manifestations 
of particular emotions are proportional to the development of 
the phrene organs of the propensities, the excitement of which 
produces the emotions. 



224 MYSTERIES OF HEAD AND HEART. 

trating phrenology. Virey, another able writer, 
remarked: 

'Dr. Gall pretends that the passions reside in the brain and 
not in the ganglionic (sympathetic) system, yet who does not 
know that the minutest reptiles, worms and insects, experience 
fear, desire, and love. There are then passions without the inter- 
vention of brains. The passions, properly speaking, belong 
therefore to animals as well as to man, because they reside in 
the ganglionic nervous system, and produce emotions of the 
heart.' " 

M. Tupper, also, in his inquiries concerning Dr. 

Gall's system, said: 

" We are far from consenting that the different organs of the 
affections and passions are concentrated in the brain. The opin- 
ions of the philosophers of antiquity, as well as those of our own 
time, supported by the testimony of consciousness, have placed 
in the procordial organs, or in those of internal life (which are 
farther distant, and which appear the most independent of the 
brain), the seat of our most impetuous passions." 

Bichat, who is by many regarded as the greatest of 
modern physiologists, and who died in 1802, taught 
that " the ganglionic system of nerves (the sympa- 
thetic) and the abdominal viscera are the sole seats 
of the affections and passions." — See Gall on the 
Functions of the Brain. 

The nerves commonly included under the general 
term sympathetic or ganglionic system (Fig. 92), un- 
doubtedly consist of two distinct and independent sys- 
tems, one of which has for its function to transmit the 
influences of the emotions to the heart and arteries, 
and other vital organs; these might with propriety 
be denominated the emotional nerves. The other sys- 
tem has for its office to produce co-operation among 
the vital organs themselves; these may be denomin- 






THE HEART. 225 

ated the vital system,. They are, automatically speak- 
ing, bound up with the emotional nerves, and are dis- 
tributed along with them to the various organs of the 
body; but they are independent of the mind and the 
brain; they act involuntarily and without exciting 
consciousness. I have no idea that the vital, or indeed 
any other organs, require the assistance of nerves to 
enable them to perform their own peculiar and sepa- 
rate functions, but they need nerves to enable them to 
co-operate. It is obviously necessary for the heart, 
stomach, intestines, liver, lungs and arteries to act in 
concert. To effect this harmonious co-operation, a 
complicated network of nerves is absolutely necessary. 
The heart can pulsate, the stomach can digest, and the 
liver can secrete bile without the aid of nerves; but 
they cannot all increase or decrease their action 
together without the means of inter-communication. 
It is not requisite that these vital nerves should be 
connected with the mind; they can perform their 
functions better without its interference. They act 
during sleep, when the functions of the brain are sus- 
pended, and they continue their operations during the 
waking hours in the same manner. The emotional 
system of nerves suspend their functions during sound 
sleep, and even during the waking hours, provided the 
propensities are not excited ; but the instant one of 
these is aroused, an emotion follows, which transmits 
its peculiar influence to the vital organs, to bring them 
into co-operation and harmony with the mind. 

Dr. Gall was not only the first to demonstrate that 

the emotions reside in the brain, but he was also the 

first to assert that the sympathetic nerves are the 

agents through which the emotional influences are 

15 



226 MYSTEKIES OF HEAD AND HEAET. 

transmitted to the vital organs. This opinion has 
since been confirmed by the experimental vivisections 
of Brown-Sequard and others. It will be evident, 
however, after reading the following quotations from 
the writings of eminent physiologists, that those inter- 
esting experiments did not lead them to a knowledge 
of what I conceive to be the real relations of the emo- 
tions to the vital organs. I have been unable to find 
any author who has described these relations as func- 
tional; on the contrary, the emotional influence is 
regarded by all of them as abnormal and deranging. 
Dr. Carpenter says: 

" It is difficult to speak with precision of the functions of the 
sympathetic ; there is much reason to believe, however, that it 
constitutes the channel through which the passions and emotions 
of the mind affect the organic (vital) functions, and this especially- 
through its power of regulating the calibre of the arteries. We 
have examples of the influence of these states of the mind upon 
circulation, in the palpitation of the heart which is produced by 
an agitated state of feeling; in syncope, or suspension of tho 
heart's action which sometimes comes on from a sudden shock; 
in the acts of blushing and turning pale, which consists in the 
dilatation or contraction of the small arteries ; and in the sud- 
den increase of the salivary, lachrymal and mammary secretions 
under the influence of peculiar states of the mind." 

Dr. Carpenter suggests, as Gall did, that probably 
the sympathetic brings the organic or vital into 
relation with the animal or mental, but neither he 
nor Gall has given any intimation ac to what the 
relation is. Indeed, Dr. Carpenter, in his Mental 
Physiology, expressly states that " unless the emo- 
tions get the better of the will, they do not act down- 
ward upon the organic (vital) functions." Mr. Bain, 
in his work on " The Emotions and the Will," remarks: 



THE HEAET. 227 

" It is well known thiat mental excitement has an immediate 
influence upon all the organic functions ; one set of passions, 
such as fear, have a deranging effect, while the exhilaration of 
joy, within moderate bounds, would appear to operate favorably. 

"There is evidence to prove that the state of anger is associ- 
ated with extensive derangement of the general secretions of 
organic life." 

Prof. Austin Flint, Jr., of Bellevue College, New 
York, in his splendid work on Physiology, p. 239, 
says: 

" The Pneumogastric nerves undoubtedly perform the important 
function of regulating the force and frequency of the heart's pul- 
sations" 

Dr. Flint puts the above expression in italics to 
convey his idea of its importance; and then proceeds 
to argue that the regulating consists in preventing 
those irregularities which would otherwise be inju- 
rious. 

If the views which I am advocating are correct, the 
irregularities of the heart's action (during health) are 
produced by the emotions, through the medium of 
those very nerves (branches of the emotional system), 
the office of which Dr. Flint supposes to be to prevent 
irregularities. I have an idea that the functions of 
the heart, and indeed all the vital functions, would be 
more regular if the cerebral nerves did not affect 
them at all. The cerebral (sympathetic) nerves com- 
municate with the heart and the arteries on purpose 
to produce such irregularities as will bring the vital 
functions into co-operation with the excited state of 
the mind. 

Mr. Herbert Spencer, in his " Principles of Psychol- 

t," Yol. I, says: 



228 MYSTERIES OF HEAD AND HEART. 

" There is found to exist a system of nerves which diminish 
action — inhibitory nerves they are called — and through one of 
these, it is concluded that the medulla oblongata reins in the 
heart when the cerebral irritation is excessive." 

There is undoubtedly a system of inhibitory nerves 
that proceed from the brain when Cautiousness, Rev- 
erence and other inhibitory propensities are excited; 
and there is also another system of propulsive nerves 
proceeding from the brain, that instead of reining in 
the heart's action, transmit to it the influence of 
courage, hope or love, and cause it to act with 
redoubled energy to supply the blood to the parts of 
the body which those emotional faculties call into 
action. I cannot, for a moment, admit the doctrine 
sanctioned by Mr. Spencer and Dr. Flint, that the 
oblongata, the brain or any nervous apparatus reins 
in, or regulates the heart, excepting to bring it into 
co-operation with the mind. 

Dr. William Murray, of London, in his " Treatise on 
Emotional Disorders," says: 

"Emotion does the most mischief to the organs over which 
the will has the least power." 

This is undoubtedly true. The will has no direct 
power over the vital organs. But the emotions have 
very great effects upon them, not only independently 
of the will, but against the most strenuous efforts of 
the will. Is it not strange that these able authors, 
while observing so accurately the mischievous effects 
of the emotions upon the vital functions, have never 
even inquired whether these emotional influences were 
not in some way necessary to the proper performance 
of the vital and animal functions? It is true that the 
vital functions would be better performed if the emo- 



THE HEART. 229 

tions were prevented from interfering with them; but 
it is also evident, to me at least, that the mental and 
voluntary functions would be performed in a very 
imperfect manner, if the emotions were deprived of 
their power of forcing the heart, and other vital organs, 
to co-operate with and assist them. 

DEFINITIONS AND EXPLANATIONS. 

The ideas of writers upon the mental faculties are 
so inconsistent with physiology and phrenology, that 
it is necessary to define some of the terms used in this 
essay, and to point out clearly the distinctions and 
relations which I conceive to exist between the Intel- 
lectual faculties, the propensities, the emotions and 
the vital organs. 

1. All the powers of the mind are included under 
the term mental faculties. 

2. The mental faculties are divided into two grand 
divisions, namely, the intellectual faculties and the 
propensities. 

3. Any mental faculty may exist in a dormant or 
latent state, not only when we are asleep, but also 
when there is no circumstance or occasion present to 
call it into action. 

4. When a mental faculty is excited, it produces a 
state of conciousness (a state of mind) which we 
recognize and distinguish as different from the state 
of mind produced by any other faculty. 

5. The states of mind produced by the intellectual 
faculties are called perceptions, thoughts, ideas, reas- 
onings, judgments, conceptions, imaginations and 
memories. 

6. The states of mind produced by the propensities 



230 MYSTERIES OF HEAD AND HEART. 

are denominated emotions, passions, feelings, affec- 
tions or sentiments. 

7. The state of mind produced by a powerful and 
greatly excited propensity, is sometimes called a pas- 
sion, while the state produced by the higher and more 
gentle propensities are termed sentiments. 

8. The nerves of the external senses transmit 
impressions from the external world to the mind, 
producing states of conciousness which we term sen- 
sations. These sensations should properly be classed 
with intellectunl operations. The external senses are 
in reality the lowest species of intellectual organs. 
The higher cerebral intellectual faculties are super- 
added to these. 

9. The nerves of internal and bodily sensation 
transmit to the mind sensations of a very different 
kind and for a different purpose. Their uses are to 
inform the mind of the conditions of the body, 
and to prompt the mind to make voluntary exer- 
tions to gratify the body and relieve its wants. These 
nerves may be regarded as organs of the lowest species 
of propensities, to which the higher cerebral propen- 
sities are superadded. Hunger, thirst, pain, nausea, 
sleepiness, weariness, faintness, amorousness, pneumor, 
a desire for air, and thermor, a sense of cold and heat, 
belong in this category. Whether these nerves act 
directly upon the mind, or whether each has a special 
representative in the brain through which it affects 
the mind, is a question that cannot, at present, be 
answered with positiveness. The probability is that 
each sense has the power to affect the mind directly, 
the instant it is impressed, but that, to keep the mind 



THE HEART. 231 

a long time attentive to the impression, a cerebral 
organ is necessary, especially in the higher animals. 

10. Feeling is a general term which is used to 
express several different ideas. We say gold feels 
heavy; furs have a soft, warm feeling; I feel comfort- 
able, or I feel sorry. The passions and emotions were 
by Spurzheim denominated feelings. I prefer to use 
the word emotion in this sense. Each propensity, 
when excited, produces a peculiar state of the con- 
sciousness, which may be denominated an emotion. 
According to this definition, hunger and thirst, and 
several other states of mind which are usually called 
appetites, or bodily sensations, must be included among 
the emotions. But this difficulty is unavoidable, unless 
we coin a new word to express this idea. It will be 
evident to any one who adopts this theory of the emo- 
tions which I am proposing, that we must use lan- 
guage that will enable us to distinguish clearly between 
1, the dormant faculty; 2, the state of mind that it 
produces when excited; and 3, the effects which it 
produces upon the heart and other vital organs. We 
must no longer speak of a feeling or an emotion as a 
faculty; we may as well regard a thought as a faculty. 
There is no objection to using the term emotional 
faculty, to signify a propensity which, when excited, 
produces a state of mind called an emotion. It is often 
convenient to use this expression. A propensity is a 
natural disposition to do certain kinds of things. It 
may, and, during much of the time, does exist in a 
dormant state. When excited, it instantly acts upon 
the consciousness and produces a state of mind called 
an emotion. 



232 MYSTEEIES OF HEAD AND HEART. 



THE WILL. 



If some of the faculties approve and others oppose, 
a struggle occurs between the contending forces, and 
the result is denominated the will. The intellectual 
faculties never constitute any part of the will. Their 
office is to furnish the knowledge which excites or 
allays the excitement of the propensities. They are 
the teachers and guides, and not the masters of the 
propensities; the propensities are the steam engines, 
the intellect is the surveyor and engineer. That the 
will is distinct from the intellect, is proved by the fact 
that the intellect is often forced by the will to think 
upon a particular subject, to the exclusion of others; 
thus, we can will to solve a problem instead of com- 
posing a discourse, although the latter would be the 
more agreeable task. 

THE USES OE THE EMOTIONS. 

' What is the use of the emotions in the mind? I am 
not aware that this question has ever been asked 
before, but it seems to me well worth considering. 
Why do not the propensities, when excited, proceed at 
once to gain their objects by the aid of the intellect, 
without each first producing a peculiar state of the 
mind? I venture to answer: The use of the emotion, 
in the mind, is to give notice to all the other faculties, 
that the propensity is excited and inclined to produce 
certain results by getting control of the body. The 
other faculties, being thus fairly notified, have an 
opportunity to approve or oppose the proceeding. 

THE INDEPENDENCE OF EACH EMOTION. 

When an emotion is excited, it cannot act upon the 
the voluntary organs of the body without the consent 






THE HEART. 233 

» 

of the will, but it can act upon the vital organs with- 
out the consent of any other faculty.* A single 
excited propensity can powerfully and specially influ- 
ence the vital organs, not only without the concur- 
rence of the will or the intellect, but against the efforts 
of both. When anger, or love, or fear is excited, the 
heart and the blood vessels are disturbed, and the cir- 
culation in the hands and cheek vary instantly, before 
we have time to think or will or determine anything. 
Even when we have time to think and will, and do so 
with all our power, it sometimes happens that the 
emotion will not down at our bidding; the heart will 
palpitate and the cheek redden or pale in spite of all 
our voluntary efforts to prevent them. So when we 
think of anything delicious and sour, like strawberries 
or lemons and sugar, the saliva flows into our mouths 
without the slightest regard to our will our wishes or 
our intellect. 

Let us recapitulate some of the principal facts: 
1. The fact that there are two separate and distinct 
sets of nerves through which the mind influences the 
body: one set consists of volitional nerves, through 
which the will moves the voluntary muscles, and the 
other set consists of the emotional nerves, through 

*This view of the functions of the propensities and emotions, 
enables us to understand why the intellectual organs are so much 
smaller than the organs of the propensities. The intellectual 
organs only act upon the mind, and do not affect the body ; but 
each of the propensities acts in two directions : it acts upon the 
mind and intellect, to control volition ; and it also, through the 
emotional (sympathetic) nerves, influences the whole vital system. 
We can also understand why some of the propensities require 
larger organs than others (Cautiousness, Submissiveness and 
Parentiveness, for examples). It is because their frequent dorn- 
inence and conservative influence is so much needed. 



234 MYSTERIES OF HEAD AND HEAET. 

which a single propensity and its emotion can affect 
the vital organs and vary their functional movements. 

2. That while the volitional movement is voluntary, 
the emotional movement is entirely involuntary. 

3. That the emotional movement precedes the voli- 
tional. It precedes thought and anticipates will. 

4. The fact that the normal effects of the emotion 
upon the bodily organs are precisely such in all cases 
as to quality them for the movements which are to be 
required, if the excited emotions get control of the 
mind. Anger does not wait until the fight begins, 
before it sends blood to the hands and feet and face, 
and the external senses; it acts the instant the con- 
test is suggested to the mind. The alkaline saliva 
enters the mouth before the delicious sour fruit can 
possibly be put into it. 

5. The excited emotion not only acts generally upon 
the vital organs as a whole, but it often acts spec- 
ially upon a limited set of vital organs, as in the 
case of the salivary on the mammary glands. What 
is denominated emotional expression, depends, in some 
degree, upon this fact, that each emotion produces its 
own- peculiar and distinctive effects both upon the vol- 
untary and involuntary organs of the body. 

6. The same propensity, when excited, always pro- 
duces precisely the same kind of effects both upon the 
mind and the vital organs; it either increases or it 
diminishes vital action ; the same propensity does 
not at one time increase and at another time diminish 
the circulation. The law is that any propensity which, 
when excited, tends to increase voluntary exertion, 
produces an emotion which increases vital action also; 






THE HEART. 235 

and, on the contrary, any propensity that restrains 
voluntary exertion does the same to vital action. 

7. The intellectual faculties, when ever so much 
excited, have no effect whatever upon the vital organs. 
They neither increase nor diminish the circulation of 
the blood. They receive impressions through the 
external senses; they perceive and remember the 
qualities of objects, and they reason concerning them, 
and concerning the various emotional experiences of 
the mind; they also, when goaded by the will, direct 
and guide the limbs, and all the voluntary muscles, to 
the objects which will gratify the dominent propensi- 
ties. The intellect, alone, has no desires and produces 
no emotions and no actions. 

LONG-CONTINUED ACTION OF THE EMOTIONS. 

It seems to be assumed by all writers upon this 
subject, that the emotions only affect the vital organs 
upon extraordinary occasions, or in times of great 
excitement; whereas, I conceive the truth to be that 
they pervade the whole body with their influences 
almost continually, not only while we are awake, but 
even during sleep, when the brain is excited by dreams. 
Whenever we do anything, or think of doing anything, 
the propensity that prompts the thought stimulates a 
thousand nerve fibrils to act upon innumerable distant 
blood-vessels, and causes them to vary their action in 
sympathy. It is only when a propensity is violently 
excited that we are able to perceive its effects upon 
the larger vital organs — the heart, the lungs, the 
stomach, or the liver. In ordinary cases the emo- 
tional influence operates imperceptibly. When ambi- 
tion, avarice or anxiety predominates habitually in the 
mind, the morbid propensity pours an almost con- 



236 MYSTERIES OF HEAD AND HEART. 

stant stream of its own peculiar emotional influence 
upon the heart, and its myriads of minute arterial 
vessels — silently, unconsciously, but inevitably chang- 
ing the character of the whole constitution, and bring- 
ing it into accordance with the condition and character 
of the mind. 

RELATION OF FAITH AND EXPECTATION TO THE 
EMOTIONS. - 

The preliminating influence of the emotions is in 
no degree under the direction of the intellect or of the 
will. When we imagine our hand being burned or 
crushed, an emotion is excited by the thought, and 
that varies the circulation in the hand without our 
willing. When we think of the dentist coming to 
pull out a tooth, it often stops aching, because the 
emotional influence that accompanies the thought 
modifies the circulation near the tooth, and as soon as 
the influence ceases the aching returns. It is curious 
and instructing that willing the tooth to stop aching 
does not stop it, but imagining and expecting the 
dentist pulling it does. The same is true in all cases 
of emotional |>reiimination. If we will the face to 
become pale and the hands to become cold, no effect 
follows, but if we can imagine a situation and scene 
of great danger with sufficient vividness, the prelim- 
inating paleness will follow. So if we will to shed 
tears we cannot, but we can read an imaginary story 
which will produce the requisite emotional state, and 
the tears will follow as a natural consequence. On 
this principle we can understand the modus operandi 
by which warts are charmed away from the hand, by 
the influence of the patient's own emotional state of 
mind affecting the local capillary circulation. In the 



THE heart. 23? 

* 
same way scrofulous swellings, or king's evil, were 

cured by the supposed influence of the King of Eng- 
land, as described by Shakspeare in Macbeth: 

" At his touch, 
Such sanctity hath heaven given his hand, 
They presently amend ; 

How he solicits heaven 
Himself best knows ; but strangely visited people 
All swol'n and ulcerous, pitiful to the eye, 
The mere despair of surgery, he cures." 

The will and the emotions have this in common, 
that when the mind is put into a proper state, the 
appropriate effects upon the body follow without any 
mental direction. Thus when we will to stoop and 
pick a pin from off' the floor, we bring more than a 
score of muscles into play simultaneously, balance 
ourselves, and make all the requisite movements, 
without thinking of any of them. We only will the 
results,, and a complicated apparatus does the rest 
better without our guidance than with it. Just so 
the excited emotion of anger merely has to take pos- 
session of the intellect, and cause us to imagine an 
offense, and the blood mounts to the face and rushes 
into the limbs. If we think of acid fruits, that is 
sufficient to rouse the specific emotional influence 
which increases the flow of saliva. Precisely the 
same principle applies to the cure or the aggravation 
of local diseases. It is not requisite for the sufferer 
to understand the anatomy or physiology ot the 
parts, the nature of the disease, or the manner in 
which the effects are to be produced. He has only to 
imagine a result, and all the links, between the 
imagination and the result are furnished by nature, 
without our taking any thought about it. 



238 MYSTEEIES OF HEAD AND HEAET. 

The influence of the mind in curing or aggravating 
diseases has long been known, and it has been con- 
sidered a sufficient explanation to say that the results 
are produced by faith, by imagination, by expectation 
or by expectant attention. But these are only names 
for causes and processes, the real nature of which was 
unknown. It was observed that when some patients 
had faith in certain remedies, they were more fre- 
quently cured than when they had none, and the 
happy results were, therefore, very naturally attrib- 
uted to their faith; it was observed that when patients 
confidently expected certain effects, they actually hap- 
pened much more frequently than when they had no 
such expectations. In these cases the results were 
attributed to .expectation, and the explanation was 
regarded as satisfactory. Di\ Carpenter, and other 
modern physiologists, seem to think that they have 
made an important advance by varying the expression, 
and calling it expectant attention, and declaring that 
this produces the important results which have here- 
tofore been attributed to faith or to imagination. It 
is difficult to perceive that one of these expressions is 
better or worse than the others. The question is, what 
is the physiological change that occurs? and in what 
way does expectant attention produce the change? 
These questions I conceive that I have answered, by 
showing that when we contemplate a result which it 
requires a vital change to produce, the emotions spon- 
taneously produce the requisite vital changes, without 
our conciousness or volition. The faith, expectation 
or imagination in such cases, is not the cause, but 
merely one of the necessary pre-conditions; just as 
aiming a gun correctly is one of the necessary con- 



THE HEAET. 239 

■t 

ditions, but not the cause, that impels the ball to the 
mark. 

Three links in the chain which constitutes this new 
theory of the emotions, have been furnished by my 
predecessors: 1. That the emotions are located in the 
brain. 2. That a distinct system of nerves connect 
the brain with the vital organs. 3. That through 
these nerves the emotions produce powerful, exciting 
and restraining effects upon those organs. Another 
link is wanting to constitute a proper theory, and I 
have endeavored to supply it, by showing that the 
emotions exert their influences upon the vital organs 
for a normal and useful purpose, and that the ill effects 



Note. — The advocates of the development theory of the origin 
of species have insisted that the frequent use or exertion of a limb, 
or any other organ, in a particular direction or manner, must 
have resulted in the greater extension and development of that 
organ, and in this manner they account for the modification of a 
species until it becomes a new species. The opponents of this 
doctrine admit that many varieties of a species may be produced 
in this way, but deny that a new species has ever resulted from 
this or any other natural cause. Without entering into this con- 
troversy, I wish to point out the fact that the new explanation 
of the emotions which I am proposing, has an evident and 
important bearing upon the subject, by showing that the mere 
desire or long continued thought upon a subject, even when the 
limbs are not put into actual use with reference to it, by increas- 
ing the circulation in the limb, will contribute to its extension. 
It is not necessary for the mind to perceive the manner or direc- 
tion of the needed development, but only to think upon the 
results desired, and the emotional nature will cause the necessary 
developments in the proper directions. How much more this 
influence is exerted upon the lower forms of animal life than the 
higher, and whether it is sufficient to carry modifications to the 
length of producing new species, I leave to be determined by 
those who are devoting their minds specially to this subject. 



240 MYSTERIES OF HEAD AND HEART. 

are due to the excessive, and not to the proper and 
normal action of the emotions. 

WHY ARE MEN MORE INTELLECTUAL AND WOMEN MORE 
EMOTIONAL ? AND WHY ARE CHILDREN MORE EMO- 
TIONAL THAN ADULTS ? 

We regard those persons as emotional who give fre- 
quent and strong expression to their emotions, and we 
assume that they are more intellectual who suppress 
their emotional expressions. It is true in this sense 
only, that women and children are more emotional 
than men. 

First, let us inquire what advantage there is in being 
free from the power of the emotions. As a general 
rule it is the duty and business of men to go out into 
the world and contend for the means of living, and for 
social position. In doing this they require health, 
courage, firmness and intellect. If one allows his feel- 
ings to be excited beyond a certain point, there are 
others watching him — cunning as foxes ; rapacious as 
wolves; merciless as tigers, to take advantage of him. 
The amiable, sympathetic, confiding, generous-hearted 
man is soon ruined. In our large cities, by the law of 
"natural selection," the credencive, amiable and emo- 
tional characters are continually weeded out, and the 
entire field ultimately left to the cool-headed man, 
whose noblest emotions are all held in check. Women 
are not generally subjected to struggles of this nature. 
They only rival each other in dress and manners, in 
household skill and agreeableness of disposition. 
Before marriage they are protected from wrong, not 
only by their own shrewdness, but by the courage and 
power of their fathers, brothers and uncles; after mar- 
riage, by the same manly qualities in the husband, 



THE HEAKT. 241 

with the addition of t a terrible, but perhaps dormant 
jealousy. Before marriage she is treated like a child, 
and after marriage she is still protected like one. If 
men were treated in this manner for a hundred gen- 
eration, they would become as emotional as women. 
It is not in intellect that men are so much superior to 
women, as in the predominance of the propensities 
that enable them to suppress their own sympathies 
and take advantage of those of others. If women lack 
firmness and courage, men lack faith, reverence and 
confidingness. A man loves a woman or a child who 
has these qualities, but woe to the man who possesses 
them himself. When he goes out into the world, he 
goes like a sheep among wolves. 

Nature makes children emotional while they are in 
a state of dependence, and under parental protection, 
but when the boy is old enough to act for himself, he 
"puts away childish things, 1 ' and "girds up his loins 
like a man." 

LAUGHTER AND TEARS. 

Laughter and tears are neither of them intellectual 
operations; they are eminently emotional. Laughter 
belongs to the class of exalting emotional manifesta- 
tions, and tears to the depressing. The theory which 
I am advocating enables us to give a physiological 
explanation of both phenomena. 

"When pleasing and joyous emotions are excited, the 
blood vessels become filled and the muscles ready and 
prepared for action. If at the same time there is no 
serious occasion to do any thing to show our joy by 
muscular exertion, even playfully, the surplus energy 
is thrown off by laughter. It is the playful exercise 



242 MYSTEEIES OF HEAD AND HEART. 

of the vocal and respiratory organs. We not only 
laugh when we see any thing ludicrous, but when we 
are pleased for any reason. The primary cause of 
laughter is in the brain, the effect is upon the respira- 
tory and vocal organs. Submissive reverence is op- 
posed to laughter because it belongs to the depressing 
class of propensities. The moment we become rever- 
ential we stop laughing, for the same reason that we 
stop all other kinds of playing. Crying and tears are 
the opposite of laughter ; they are caused by a sudden 
suppression of the invigorating or exalting emotions 
and the sudden excitement of the depressing. The 
two most powerful depressing emotions are fear and 
reverence. They both, when excited, produce coldness 
of the extremities and the skin, check the insensible 
perspirations, and change them to watery secretions. 
When fear is greatly excited, cold sweat exudes from 
the skin. If the skin had maintained its warmth this 
sweat would have passed away in invisible vapor, but 
now it gathers upon the skin, just as drops gather 
upon a window, when the previously invisible moisture 
is deposited upon it from the air of a warm room that 
is suddenly chilled. The same moisture-gathering 
process goes on internally; when sudden fear invades 
the body and mind, the bowels and kidneys are filled 
with moisture and their action increased. 

Tears are often produced by disappointment. When 
the mind is in a joyous state, and is expecting some 
important gratification, the face is flushed with the 
arterial blood; then suddenly disappointment comes 
and checks the genial flow of spirits, and we are unwil- 
lingly forced to submit. Disappointment is not itself 
a propensity; it is an negative quality, a reaction of 



THE HEART. 243 

the invigorating emcftions. Just as a stream that is 
suddenly checked by an obstruction overflows its 
banks, turns back upon itself!, and threatens mischief 
to its borders; so the emotional capillary arteries of 
the brain and face, that a moment before were com- 
municating joy and energy to the mind and body, are 
suddenly arrested in their action ; and in many cases 
fatal mischief would certainly follow, were it not that 
nature has provided an outlet at the eyes. In the act 
of vocal crying the same object is attained as in 
laughing; the surplus arterial energy is thrown off in 
both cases through the same channel, and relief 
afforded to the brain. The remark has often been 
made, though not by physiologists, that tears relieve 
the heart, and that it is a dangerous symptom when a 
deeply-afflicted person is unable to shed tears. Shake- 
speare makes Malcolm express this idea when Mac- 
duff hears of the murder of all his children: 

" Give sorrow words ; the grief that does not speak, 
Whispers the o'erfraught heart, and hids it break." 

PHYSIOLOGY OF VOCAL EXPRESSION. 

INVOLUNTARY, INTELLECTUAL, AND EMOTIONAL. 

It is a curious and interesting fact, that in almost 
every department of our nature the voluntary and the 
involuntary are combined together. It seems that 
the Creator made our functions involuntary wherever 
it was practicable to do so, and that he has given the 
mind no control or care except when it could not well 
be avoided ; our thoughts and feelings are but slightly 
under the control of our will ; our emotions produce 
powerful effects upon mind and body, whether we will 






244 MYSTERIES OF HEAD AND HEART. 

or not; our power over them is limited within very 
narrow bounds. It is commonly supposed that our 
speech is entirely voluntary, but I propose to show 
that this is far from being the case; on the contrary, 
our vocal organs, which produce accent and pause, are 
so intimately connected with the involuntary functions 
of pulsation and respiration, that both the accents and 
pauses of speech are in a great measure involuntary 
also. I am not aware that any other writer has men- 
tioned this fact, and I will therefore endeavor to 
explain and illustrate it as clearly as possible. 

Our involuntary motions may be divided into those 
that are made occasionally, as circumstances render 
them necessary, and those that are made regularly and 
consecutively. The pulsations of the heart and arte- 
ries, and the movements of the respiratory apparatus, 
are the only regular motions. In ordinary health, 
when the emotions are passive, the pulsations of an 
adult are about seventy per minute. These pulsations 
are observed in all parts of the body, and in the brain. 
In adults the average number of pulsations to the 
respirations is nearly as five to one. I find that 
accents and pauses are remarkably coincident with 
pulsations and respirations in three particulars: first, 
accents are involuntary; second, they are regular in 
time; and third, the accents are to the pauses as five 
to one. 

1. Accent is involuntary. — It seems to have been 
taken for granted that the accent of speech is like 
emphasis, a perfectly voluntary matter. It is true 
that we may place the accent on any syllables of a 
long word we please, but it requires a strong voluntary 
effort to keep from accenting any of them. Children 



THE HEAET. 245 

and savages, without instruction, accent as perfectly and 
regularly as cultivated people. It is sometimes said 
that the French language has no accents. This remark 
can only mean that in French the rules are less rigid 
than in English. Custom may determine whether the 
accent shall be placed on the first, the second, or any 
other syllable, but it cannot exclude accent altogether, 
any more than it can prevent respiration. To prove 
this let any one rapidly repeat the syllables te-to-tum 
ten or fifteen times, and he will find himself uncon- 
sciously placing the accent on one of them. By an 
effort of will he may avoid it for a while, but the 
moment his attention flags he will begin to accent. Or 
let any one attempt to read a sentence of a language, 
(the Spanish, for instance,) that he does not under- 
stand, and concerning the customary accents of which 
he knows nothing, and he will find it extremely diffi- 
cult to repeat the words without accenting them, 
whether he does it correctly or not. 

2. Accent is regular in time, and in this respect it 
is analogous to pulsation. When the emotions do not 
interfere, we make a definite number of accents in a 
given time. To prove this, read a few sentences of 
ordinary prose monotonously, without any attempt to 
express the meaning by variations of the voice, and 
you will find that you naturally, and without effort, 
make your accents at regular intervals of time; for 
example: PoZ^ical parties frequently resolve them- 
selves into y^ctions. Take another example, in which 
nearly all the words are monosylables, and are there- 
fore commonly supposed to be incapable of accent, 
and we shall find the accenting impulse asserting itself 
instinctively, as in the following sentence: " Take my 



246 MYSTEEIES OF HEAD AND HEART. 

yoke npon you and learn of me, for / am meek and 
lowiy of hearth Accent is not a property of words, 
but a function of the vocal organs, to which words must 
conform. When we read rapidly we accent no often er 
than when we read slowly. To prove this, let us read 
the following sentence very slowly, putting italics to 
represent the accented syllables: 

And Agrippa, said unto Paid, Thou art permuted 
to speak for thyself; then Paul stretched forth his 
hand and answered for himself, saying, I think my- 
self happy, King Agrippa, that / am permuted to 
speak hefore thee this day. ISTow read the same sen- 
tence rapidly. And Agrippa, said unto Paid, Thou 
art permuted to speak for thyself; then Paid stretched 
forth his hand and <mswered for himself, saying, I 
think myself happy, King Agrippa,, that I am per- 
muted to speak hefore thee this day. 

In the first reading there are twenty-seven accents, 

and in the second sixteen. The fact is, that when we 

read rapidly, we crowd a greater number of syllables 

in between two accents than when we read slowly. If 

any one will use as man} 7 accents as the sense will 

admit, he cannot read rapidly. Let us give another 

illustration: 

All j hail i thou I moon. 

We all i do hail to thee \ our moon. 

We all of us | do hail to thee | and only thee | our only moon. 

It seems as if our vocal organs issue sounds in a 
series of in^ulses that may be compared to waves. 
We can, if we choose, put as many as four syllables in 
between two accents, as in this example: 

Innumerable hefore the throne. 

In the dictionaries and spelling books we have many 



THE HEAET. , 247 

words that are said ih have two accents, a primary and 
secondary. The reason is now evident; if we speak 
slowly, we prolong the sound beyond the time required 
for an accentual impulse, and bring the word within 
the time of a second impulse, as in the following 
example. Read slowly: 

The declaration of independence. 
~Now read the same rapidly : 

The declaration of independence. 

Words of one syllable are not supposed to have the 
property of accentability, but if we prolong the sound 
of a single monosyllable, so that it occupies the time 
of a whole vocal impulse, we shall find that it is really 
accented. If the word begins or ends with a vowel, 
the accent is on that vowel, and if the vowel is in 
the middle, then the accent is in the middle. This 
will be seen, in the following examples : 

own brow throne screams 

owing borrow throwing Iowa 

We prolong the sounds as much in the words of the 
first line as in those of the second. The word screams, 
so far as accent is concerned, is equivalent to a word 
of three syllables, the middle one of which is accented. 
This may be illustrated thus: 

screams immortal 

3. The accents are to the pauses, on an average, as 
five to one. I refer only to the pauses required for 
respiration, and not to those required by the sense, 
much less to those that express emotion. Let a 
person repeat a single word, as — below, below, below, 
below, below; and he will find it most convenient and 
comfortable to repeat it five times, and then breathe, 
and again five times, and breathe, and so on. Very 



248 MYSTERIES OF HEAD AND HEART. 

young persons breathe more frequently, and they pre- 
fer to repeat the word only four times without breath- 
ing. In accordance with these facts, we find that the 
most popular poems are written with five accents or 
feet in a line. Shakespeare, Milton, Pope, Dryden, 
Homer, Yirgil, Dante, used this measure. Poems of 
a more lively character, like those of Scott, are in four 
accents. 

Come one, come all, this rock shall fly 
From its firm base as soon as I. 

The modern poets imitate the ancients. The ancient 
Greeks, Hebrews, and others, probably wrote their 
poems to be chanted in unison, by large multitudes; 
it was therefore necessary, as in modern music, to have 
the accents and the pauses occur regularly, at definite 
intervals of time. 

I think I have established the fact of the intimate 
relation of pauses to lines of poetry, and to the move- 
ment of respiration; let us now remark the coinci- 
dence between pulsations and accents. 

When we consider that the pulsations are to the res- 
pirations as five to one, that the accents are to pauses 
as five to one, and that all four are involuntary func- 
tions, we naturally suspect that the respiratory and 
pulsating movements are the causes of the accents 
and pauses; that, in fact, the pulsation of the heart 
and arteries causes the accentual impulses of the vocal 
organs, and the necessity of breathing causes the invol- 
untary pauses. 

The pulsations of the heart are probably more 
powerfully impressed upon the lungs than upon any 
other organs, on account of the vast quantity of blood 
that passes from the heart through the lungs. The 



THE HEAET. 249 

air that produces vocal sound comes directly from the 
lungs, charged with the pulsating movement. 

INFLUENCE OF THE INTELLECT UPON SPEECH. 

I have described speech hitherto as if the mind 
had no influence over it, excepting so far as may be 
necessary to produce unmeaning articulate sounds. 1 
have only spoken of the involuntary vocal functions. 
These must be carefully distinguished from the effects 
produced by the mind. Furthermore, the influence 
of the intellect and thought must be distinguished 
from the influence of the emotions. Intellectual 
reading or speaking, the object of which is merely to 
express thoughts without emotion, may be perfectly 
monotonous — at the most, it only requires pauses 
and stress on particular words, to make the meaning 
clear. These pauses may be o± different lengths, and 
so may be the intervals between them, as in the fol- 
lowing: 

To die, to sleep, no more, 

Or by a sleep to say we end the heart-ache. 

The ideas expressed by the intellect are different 

from those expressive of mere emotion. Intellectual 

language is explanatory, descriptive, statemental or 

interrogative, and is supposed to convey or to require 

information; but pure emotion is exclamatory, and 

only conveys to the listener the idea that the speaker 

is under the influence of certain emotions, as in the 

following examples: "Oh! Absalom! my son! my 

son! would to God I had died for thee ! " " Give me 

liberty or give me death ! " " How dear to my heart 

are the scenes of my childhood ! " " If thou dost 

slander her and torture me — never pray more!" 

"On horror's head horrors accumulate!" 



250 MYSTEEIES OF HEAD AND HEAET. 

" I know not, I ask not if guilt's in thy heart, 
I but know that I love thee whatever thou art ! " 

" Angels and ministers of grace defend us ! " 

Emotional speaking requires variations of pitch, 
time, suddenness, loudness and smoothness. Each 
emotion produces its own peculiar effect upon the 
voice. The elocutionist, by watching and studying the 
modes in which people laboring under powerful emo- 
tions express themselves, learns to represent the pas- 
sions with remarkable fidelity to nature. 

The new theory of the emotions is applicable here, 
for it seems that those emotions that increase the 
energy of the conduct and of the vital action, also 
increase the energy of the voice. Combativeness pro- 
duces violence of conduct, of circulation, and of voice; 
while Reverence and Kindness produce the contrary 
effects upon all three; Sanativeness produces crying, 
wailing, minor key tones; Imperativeness, loud, sud- 
den tones; Hopefulness, high, musical, rapid, major 
key sounds; Amativeness and Parentiveness, cooing 
tones, and Firmness, decided tones. 



PART THIRD 



THE HEAD AND THE HEAET UNBALANCED, 

PRODUCING TRANCE, MESMERISM, SPIRITISM AND HAL- 
LUCINATION. 



TKANCE — ITS VARIETIES AND ITS 

CAUSES. 

Parts Eirst and Second of this treatise are devoted 
to an explanation of the ordinary and healthful func- 
tions of the head and the heart. It is now proposed 
to show that trance, mesmerism and spiritism are 
produced by the excessive action of the conforming 
propensities, causing vital depression, which, in turn, 
reacts upon the brain. 

Trances and their various attendant hallucinations, 
have been matters of wonder in all ages and in almost 
every community. Witchcraft, mesmerism, spiritism 
and hysteria — which are some of its phases — have 
always been regarded as mysteries which science was 
unable to solve. 

The phenomena of nature may be divided into the 
ordinary or normal, and the extraordinary or abnor- 

(251) 



252 MYSTEKIES OF HEAD AND HEAKT. 

raal. The ordinary phenomena are unobtrusive and 
regular, and when their causes are understood, they 
are found to result from the operation of the regular 
laws of nature. The extraordinary, or abnormal 
phenomena, whenever their causes are ascertained, 
are, in all cases, found to result from some irregularity 
of the same causes that produce the ordinary. For 
this reason they only manifest themselves occasionally. 
They are exceptional, novel, striking, and calculated 
to excite surprise and astonishment; while the ordi- 
nary phenomena, that are produced by the very same 
causes, and are proceeding quietly and regularly all 
around and within us, are almost entirely unobserved 
and unappreciated. 

The tremendous waves of the sea, which rise when 
the tempest rages, are not different in their nature 
from the small ripples raised by the summer zephyrs; 
the dreadful tornado, that sweeps over the continent 
like an angel of wrath, is precisely of the same char- 
acter as the airy whirls that are often seen playing 
with the autumn leaves; the powerful human passions 
that have given birth to all the crimes, the vices, the 
insanities and the miseries of mankind, are the very 
same, that, in their gentler and more normal moods, 
constitute the most angelic virtues. 

The phenomena of trance are only exhibitions of 
the ordinary faculties and functions in a highly mag- 
nified and somewhat distorted form. 

Note. — Somniferousness, the phrene organ of ordinary sleep, 
is probably located near Alimentiveness It certainly exists 
somewhere in the brain, and so indeed does every propensity of 
the mind, whether its organ is discovered or not. 

Is not sleep a want and a necessity of both body and mind ? 



HEAD AND HEART UNBALANCED. 253 

To understand the abnormal effects of the mind 
upon the body, it is, therefore, absolutely necessary to 
acquire beforehand, a clear and correct idea of the 
proper and normal action of the mental organs. How 
many such organs are there? What is the precise 
function of each, under ordinary circumstances, and 
in ordinary health? Into what classes are they natur- 
ally divisible? Are all the organs of each class equal 
in rank, and if not what is the natural order of eleva- 
tion, arrangement and succession? Are the organs 
continually active, or are they generally dormant and 
passive, unless circumstances occur to excite them? 

Does it not have to be attended to and provided for nightly? 
Do we not suffer intensely in mind when we are forci- 
bly prevented from sleep? Do we not spend a third of the 
time of our lives in sleep ? Is not the feeling, the desire, the 
emotional condition of the mind in relation to it as strong as 
that of any other which Ave experience? Admitting then, since 
we must, that there is a distinct propensity of this character, the 
next question is, by what means does it produce the desired 
effect? 

It is now generally understood that the immediate cause of 
sleep is the diminution of blood in the brain ; but no one has 
before suggested any physiological process by which the quan- 
tity of blood in the brain is lessened in order to produce ordi- 
nary sleep. The explanation of the emotions contained in these 
pages applies to this subject. Somniferousness is a depressing 
propensity ; it moderates the vital action in the ^specific manner 
required ; it checks the circulation in the brain and the limbs 
just as fear does, but in a more gentle and agreeable manner. 
Several phrenologists have suggested an organ of a propensity 
to sleep, but none of them have furnished the evidence required 
to establish its location, and even if they had it would still be 
necessary to explain the manner in which it affects the circu- 
lation. I suppose that the Somniferous propensity, through the 
medium of the inhibitory emotional (sympathetic) nerves, pro- 
duces sleep by diminishing the circulation in the brain. 



254 MYSTEEIES OF HEAD AND HEART. 

When one is excited what is its ordinary and proper 
effect npon the mind and the body, and what is the 
evident utility and design of that effect? In the pre- 
ceding pages I have endeavored to answer all these 
questions, in order to lay a foundation for the explana- 
tions that are to follow. 

Trances have probably occurred in all the commu- 
nities of the world. They have presented themselves 
under various circumstances and received various 
names, but they have all been produced by one cause — 
the depressing action of the conforming social propen- 
sities upon the vital organs. These propensities are 
four in number. The first, and most potent in pro- 
ducing the trance, is Submissiveness, which, when 
excited, fills the mind with the emotion of Reverence 
or awe; the second is Kindness, which produces the 
emotion of pity; the third is Imitativeness, which 
produces sympathy; and the fourth, Credenciveness, 
which produces marvelousness, wonder and belief. 
They all tend to a yielding and conformity of our- 
selves, our manners and our judgments to others. 

When excited in only an ordinary degree, they act 
on the heart and arteries, and moderate the circula- 
tion, and at the same time produce respectful, mild 
and gentle conduct ; but when excited in an extraordi- 
nary degree, especially in persons whose vital organs 
are weak, they diminish the circulation in the limbs, 
the face and the brain, sufficiently to produce an 
extraordinary species of sleep, and other abnormal 
effects that have been known under a great variety of 
names, such as trance, hypnotism, biology, mesmerism, 
catalepsy, hysteria, hallucination, ecstacy, witchcraft, 
religious power, and the mediumistic state. The im- 



HEAD AND HEART UNBALANCED. 255 

mediate cause of alP kinds of sleep is now understood 
to be a diminution of blood in the brain. There is 
no function of the body or the mind that does not 
cease when the organ of that function is deprived of 
blood. When a person is bled until the quantity of 
blood in the brain falls below a certain point he 
swoons, becomes unconscious. There is another pecu- 
liarity that is common to all phases of trance, and that 
is hallucination and dreaming, either spontaneous or 
suggested. The bewitched ones have an idea that a 
particular person is tormenting them by the aid of 
invisible demoniac beings; the spirit medium sees and 
hears spirits, and feels irresistibly controlled by them; 
the religiously entranced enthusiast sees heavenly 
visions, hears angelic voices, and utters prophecies or 
maledictions; the mesmerised or entranced subject sees 
what is described or suggested to him, and is " fooled to 
the very top of his bent." His condition of mind is, in 
some respects, like that of one dreaming in ordinary 
sleep, and still more like that of a common somnam- 
bulist. But there is an important difference; the 
trance is not like an ordinary sleep, nor is the hallu- 
cination of one entranced an ordinary dream. They 
resemble each other in some of their effects, but they 
differ in the manner of their production and in the 
facility with which the one is managed by an operator 
while the other is utterly unconformable; they differ, 
also, in the fact that the somnambulist is not, in most 
instances, susceptible to the peculiar emotional influ- 
ences that produce the mesmeric trance. The mind 
of the somnambule is occupied by an ordinary dream, 
but the entranced person is not, he is a conforming 
dreamer. His sleep is not produced by his somnifer- 



256 MYSTEEIES OF HEAD AJSTD HEART. 

ous propensity acting normally, but by his conform- 
ing propensities acting abnormally. 

When any one is exposed to cold severe enough to 
check vital action and the manufacture of blood, sleep 
is induced, the precursor of death; when fear is greatly 
excited, it checks and depresses vital action and cere- 
bral circulation so as to produce, in some weak consti- 
tutions, faintness and swooning, which, physiologically, 
is nearly the same as sleep. On the same principle, 
when Submissiveness is greatly excited, as it fre- 
quently is in religious meetings, some persons fall 
down and are said to " lose their strength," or to be 
" stricken down by the power." In reality their own 
excited conforming propensities constitutes the power 
that entrances them. 

When sincere spiritists assemble and " form a cir- 
cle," and sing, and wait for the spirit to come and 
"control " one or more of the company, those who are 
the most conformable and vitally susceptible, will be 
the very first " controlled." All their symptoms are 
such as a diminished circulation and a conforming 
state of mind would naturally produce. 

In the different phases of trance that I have enu- 
merated, it is worthy of especial remark that there 
are certain attendant symptoms that are in some 
measure common to them all; these are paleness, cold- 
ness, tremulousness of the limbs and of the respira- 
tions, rapidity and feebleness of the pulse, and rolling 
upward and inward of the eyes. If we compare the 
accounts in the books, of persons mesmerised, biolo-. 
gised, hypnotised, mediumised, cataleptic, or reli- 
giously entranced, we find them generally agreeing in 



HEAD AND HEART UNBALANCED. 25 f 

regard to their vital conditions, and all indicating a 
greater or less tendency to sleep. 

WHY SOME PERSONS ARE MORE EASILY ENTRANCED THAN 
OTHERS. 

When this theory is first presented, it will be nat- 
ural for the reader to presume that persons with the 
conforming organs large will be found more suscep- 
tible than others; but this is not necessarily true. 
Uncommon susceptibility to the emotional influence 
seems to depend upon a peculiar weakness of the vital 
organs. I have found many persons with all the con- 
forming organs large, who could not be entranced in 
any degree; and, on the other hand, I have found 
many with the conforming organs small, who were 
very susceptible. If a dozen persons are tried at 
once, and all submit passively and . sincerely to the 
experiment, the susceptibility will generally be man- 
ifested without much reference to the proportions of 
the head. But those who have Submissiveness small, 
are seldom disposed to try it fairly; and when really 
affected they take no pleasure in the operation, and 
are inclined to return very soon to their normal con- 
dition ; those, on the contrary, who have the conform- 
ing organs large, give themselves up more readily, and 
have less antipathy to performances which require so 
great a degree of self-abnegation. I have met several 
persons who could not be entranced by any one else, 
but, after repeated trials, succeeded in putting them- 
selves into the trance state, and making speeches and 
singing songs; and what is quite curious, they go 
through with the programme that they have pre- 
viously agreed upon, come out of the trance precisely 



258 MYSTERIES OF HEAD AND HEART. 

at the time designated, and have no recollection of 
what occurred during the trance. 

The extreme cases of susceptibility are found among 
persons in whom the vital energies are somewhat 
deficient; whose flesh is soft and the complexion light, 
with what the doctors denominate " a scrofulous tem- 
perament." But I have frequently tried persons who 
gave every external indication of susceptibility, and 
yet could not be affected, while others, who seemed to 
be utterly unpromising, were readily entranced. I 
have finally come to the conclusion that it is better to 
try all who offer, without venturing any opinion 
beforehand concerning the probable results. Seers 
and religious enthusiasts, in all ages, have regarded 
the trance state as a superior condition, in which they 
enjoyed the companionship of supernatural beings, 
and received important communications from them. 
It is worthy of remark that they all agree in regard- 
ing fasting and solitude as favorable to the develop- 
ment of trance. This harmonizes with the fact that 
trance, or the mesmeric state, is induced by exciting the 
depressing instead of the invigorating emotions. The 
probability is that the low vital condition produced 
by fasting and solitude is favorable to the excitement 
of the depressing emotions, and therefore to trance; 
while genial society and good living have the con- 
trary effect. Persons suffering from delirium tremens 
have exhausted their vital power, and are laboring 
under extreme mental as well as vital depression, 
when they see their terrible visions. As soon as the 
stomach resumes its functions, and the good blood 
returns to the brain, the visions cease to appear. 
People who have depressed their vital powers by 



HEAD AND HEART UNBALANCED. 259 



. 



opium, generally become visionaries and waking 
dreamers. Dying persons are often ecstatic on the 
same principle. In some persons the susceptibility 
amounts to a positive disease; perhaps it would be 
more correct to say that it is indicative of a diseased 
condition of the vital organs, the precise nature of 
which is unknown. A young woman who lived in 
the family of Mr. Wing Russell, in Syracuse, N". Y., 
could not hear the subject talked about, or even men- 
tioned at the dining table, without instantly becoming 
entranced. I have known scores of men whom I 
could stop in the street by a sign, when they were a 
hundred rods off; or, if I wrote a note saying that on 
reading it at the dining table, they could eat no more, 
or could not speak without lisping, or could not use 
tobacco, or would be intoxicated, the experiment suc- 
ceeded. A young man named Porter, clerk and cashier 
for Judge Marvin, proprietor of the great T Inited States 
Hotel, at Saratoga, was entranced one evening in a 
public hall, and the next day, in concert with the 
Judge, I went to the office and presented a piece of 
brown paper, and told Porter that it was a fifty dollar 
note, and that I wanted to pay my bill, which was ten 
dollars. He took the note, looked at it carefully on 
both sides, put it into the money drawer, and gave me 
forty dollars in change; the Judge all the time, with 
several friends, was watching behind a screen. In 
this case, and hundreds like it that I have seen, there 
was no "dominant idea" ruling the mind; but there 
was a remarkable susceptibility — a predisposition to 
conforming monomania. Porter seemed to be in his 
normal condition; he transacted Judge Marvin's busi- 
ness correctly in dealing with any one else besides me. 



260 MYSTEKIES OF HEAD AND HEART. 

He had, the night before, had his conforming propen- 
sities greatly excited, and when he saw me again the 
conformity almost instantly returned and conquered 
his self-will and individuality — in other words, his 
governing propensities. It cannot be said that it was 
anything peculiar in me, for Judge Marvin himself, 
or any other person in whom Porter had confidence, 
could have acquired the same influence over him in a 
few minutes, by proceeding in the manner I have 
already described. 

It is a curious and interesting fact that persons in 
the conforming trance are unusually sensitive on 
moral subjects, and manifest an aversion to indecen- 
cies or improprieties. If the operator uses his influ- 
ence to make them do very improper things, which 
they are not in the habit of doing, his influence begins, 
to wane — the subject either recovers himself or 
becomes stupid, and afterwards manifests an unwil- 
lingness to submit to be experimented with again, 
although he cannot give any reason for his aversion, 
and has no recollection of the past occurrences. 

Coarse-minded operators do not succeed well in 
experiments upon highly refined and moral subjects. 
It would seem that entranced persons have a keen 
and almost clairvoyant perception of the characters 
and motives of those with whom they are in commu- 
nication. They submit and conform to the commands 
and suggestions of the operator, but they appear to 
do so with the implied understanding that he shall be 
worthy of their full and implicit confidence. When 
a subject is entranced, if the operator extorts from 
him a promise that no one else shall entrance him, the 
promise will generally be kept for a long time. The 



HEAD AND HEART UNBALANCED. 261 

conforming propensities are the natural sources of 
loyalty; and when a subject is entranced by one, he 
is indifferent to the commands, the suggestions or 
even the voices of others, unless permission is first 
given or implied by the operator. This fact has 
always been well known to expernnenters, but the 
reason ol it has not been understood. How could it 
be when phrenology was ignored, and the natural 
classification of the phrene organs, together with the 
peculiar functions of the conforming propensities, 
unknown? The old mesmerizers supposed that it 
was because a magnetic connection existed between 
the operator and his subject, and that the magnetism 
or electricity was controlled by the will of the opera- 
tor. The truth is that the loyal conforming organs 
of the subject held him in bondage to his superior. 
His operator was his sovereign, without whose con- 
sent his allegiance could not be transferred to another. 
I have met several cases of persons who were very 
susceptible after having suffered severe sickness or 
great domestic afflictions, but who had previously 
been tried repeatedly without being affected at all. I 
have observed that printers, students and those who 
have reduced their vital energies by sedentary employ- 
ments, are more susceptible than the average of other 
people. I seldom find good subjects among those 
who are in positions of authority, or in the habit of 
controlling others. Of forty United States officers at 
West Point, I did not succeed with one; but on the 
opposite side of the Hudson river, among the foundry- 
men and mechanics, I entranced on an average one in 
six of those that were tried. But I have met some 
notable exceptions to this rule. On one occasion, in 



262 MYSTERIES OF HEAD AND HEART. 

a public hall, the governor of the State (I omit his 
name for obvious reasons) was present, and when sev- 
eral ladies and gentlemen volunteered to try the exper- 
iment, the governor endeavored to persuade his niece 
to try it with the others. She at length said that she 
would if he would stand up with her. " Oh," he 
replied, "there is no use of my standing up; he can- 
not affect me." But to encourage her he stood up, 
closed his eyes and put his hands together as the oth- 
ers did. His niece was not affected at all, but the 
governor was entranced in three minutes to an extra- 
ordinary degree; wrote communications from spirits; 
saw visions, and pardoned all the criminals in the 
State. His whole performance did not last twenty 
minutes, and when, at the request of his astonished 
niece, I told him that he was " all right," he denied 
all recollection and all belief of what he had done. 

The various phases of spiritism confirm and illus- 
trate these views. The medium fancies himself pos- 
sessed by the spirit of a distinguished character, and, 
accordingly, surrendering his own individuality and 
self-hood, he conforms all his powers of body and mind 
to those of the character he assumes. His manners, 
language, tone and ideas are so utterly inconsistent 
with his own normal character, that I have not won- 
dered when ill-informed spectators were half converted 
to the belief that a spirit really did possess the medium. 
It would not seem strange if a trained actor performed 
in this manner, but it is not uncommon that the 
medium is an uneducated person, who never was in a 
theatre and never read a play. While this work has 
been going through the press, I have had the privi- 
lege, at the house of a friend, one of the most respect- 



HEAD AND HEAET UNBALANCED. 263 

* 

able business men of Chicago, of witnessing very- 
interesting manifestations of this character. The 
medium is a young lady, a native of Sweden, who 
speaks English fluently and properly, but has not yet 
learned to read it, and never enjoyed the advantages 
of an education in her own mother tongue. Her sit- 
uation is now such that she is under no necessity of 
earning money, and no motive can be conceived for 
deception. This lady was induced, in opposition to 
her own skepticism and prejudices, to attend a spirit 
"circle." In the midst of the performance, she sud- 
denly became cold, tremulous and faint, so that she 
was obliged to leave the house and return home. Her 
family, though decided spiritists, had no desire for her 
to become a medium. Without any apparent reason 
or preparation, she commenced personating the char- 
acters of deceased members of the family; and, in addi- 
tion to these, the spirit of a Winnebago half-breed 
Indian, of a semi-civilized and superior character, 
became her chief controller. She had then never seen 
an Indian, though she had heard accounts and descrip- 
tions of them. She possesses a very superior brain, 
and is endowed with great natural sagacity and 
ingenuity, but is totally ignorant of chemistry, anat- 
omy and physiology. She frequently goes into trances, 
and prescribes for diseases, and has actually produced 
— so I am told, on good authority — several remarka- 
ble cures. While under the control of her Indian 
spirit, her manner and language change instantly, and 
become strikingly different from her ordinary style. 
I listened and watched her for more than an hour, on 
one occasion, and several times for shorter periods; 
and not in a single instance did she say or do anything 



264 MYSTEEIES OF HEAD AND HEART. 

inconsistent with her Indian character. She spoke of 
herself in the third person, and called herself " the 
medium." Charlotte Cushman could not enact the 
character more perfectly. There was no hesitation; 
her answers were shrewd, sharp, and often caustic; 
but, running through all her speech was a disposition 
to do good, and to inculcate the strictest morality. 
While I was visiting at the house, some venison was 
sent home — a kind of meat she never willing ate; but 
the Indian took possession of her, and insisted on 
cooking it in the Indian fashion, by roasting, and then 
she, or he, ate several pieces in a ravenous manner. 

Medical philosophers all admit that there is a mys- 
tery connected with hysteria, that they have hitherto 
been unable to fathom. Bringing this new philosophy 
of the emotions to bear upon the subject, I should say 
that the disease consists in the alternate excitement of 
the exalting and depressing propensities of the brain, 
and that the changes in the vital organs are the legiti- 
mate effects of the cerebral excitement; the attending 
hallucinations are closely allied to those of mesmerised 
subjects and mediums. 

WILL AND SELF-WILL. 

I have defined the will as the resultant of the action 
of all the mental faculties that are interested in the 
matter under consideration. This is what the will 
should be, and what it is when the mind is in the nor- 
mal condition, and all the faculties have had time to 
bring their influences to bear upon the subject. It 
must be evident that the will of a dreaming man, 
many of whose faculties are asleep, will be likely to 
differ from the will of the same man awake. The 



HEAD AND HEART UNBALANCED. 265 

dreamer's will is h*ke the decision of a small faction 
of a legislature — it may or may not coincide with the 
decision of the whole assembly. Something analogous 
occurs when a person is under the dominion of a passion, 
that sweeps before it the opposition of the other pro- 
pensities. The suggestions of prudence, of self-interest, 
of conscience, of reason, are of no avail; it strides 
onward to its own gratification, regardless of the con- 
sequences. If a single passion thus usurps all the 
power, it may become the will de facto, but it is not 
the will de jure — the legitimate will. Richelieu said, 
" 1 am the state," and with quite as good a reason a 
tyrant passion can proclaim, / am the will. A simi- 
lar usurpation takes place in monomaniacs, when, in 
consequence of a disease of the organ of a single fac- 
ulty, perhaps one that normally has but little influence 
over the mind — it becomes influenced and irritated, 
it spurns the control of the other faculties, distorts the 
reason, and becomes the most potent element of the 
temporary will. 

SELF-WILL. 

Self-will results from the dominance of Imperative- 
ness, or Self-Esteem and Firmness. When, on com- 
paring ourselves with other people, we determine to 
do as we think proper, without reference to their will 
or wishes, it is said that we are self-willed. This 
must not be, (as it generally is,) confounded with 
ordinary will. It is only one distinct species of will. 
The dominance of Combativeness may make us will 
to fight, of Alimentiveness to eat, of Constructiveness 
to work, and of Acquisitiveness to acquire property; 
but in these instances there is no necessity of com- 



266 MYSTERIES OF HEAD AKD HEART. 

paring ourselves with others; these are not examples 
of self-will. But when it is proposed for us to aban- 
don our freedom of action, and submit to the control 
and dictation of another, the proposition involves our 
self-will. 

ABNEGATION OF SELF-WILL. 

One of the most remarkable peculiarities of the 
mesmeric and conforming trance, and one that has 
never before received a rational explanation, is the 
total surrender of the subject's self-will. But this 
abnegation, or abeyance of the self-will, is the neces- 
sary consequence of the supremacy of the conforming 
propensities. There are some persons in whom they 
are so largely developed, and the governing organs, 
(Imperativeness and Firmness,) so small, that it 
requires no trance to make them habitually subordi- 
nate to the will and wishes of others. Strictly speak- 
ing, any propensities that predominate for the time 
determine the will, and those that predominate habitu- 
ally determine the character. In the dealings of social 
beings with each other, while there is a great deal of 
subordination and conformity to society in general, 
and to certain individuals in particular, there is also, 
even in the humblest and least assuming persons, a 
certain degree of reserve and self-will, and more or 
less of a disposition to maintain their own distinctive 
individuality and independence. There is a point 
beyond which they will not yield without compulsion. 
They feel that it is not only unjust and unreasonable, 
but absurd; the idea is too ridiculous and preposter- 
ous to be entertained for a moment. Now, phreno- 
logically speaking, what propensity is it that is spe- 



HEAD AND HEAET UNBALANCED. 267 

eially offended by these requirements, and that thus 
instinctively resists thenio It is not Combativeness, 
for there is no suggestion that force will be used. It 
is Imperativeness and Firmness. These are the organs 
of self-will and individual sovereignty. When any 
one is in the conforming trance this self-will is in 
abeyance. The reason is that the trance is the effect 
of the victory of the conforming organs over those of 
self-will. The conforming organs, when dominant, 
constitute the will, but not the self~*wi\\\ it is a con- 
forming will; a will to obey and believe and enact 
what is required or suggested by others. The evi- 
dence that the trance depends upon the conforming 
organs is, 1. That they are depressing propensities, 
and therefore check the circulation, and thus tend to 
produce sleep, especially when greatly excited. 2. 
When large, the subjects remain in the trance longer 
and more willingly. 3. In somnambulism, although 
the ordinary will is in abeyance, the subject is not 
conforming nor amenable to suggestions. 4. Dr. Car- 
penter says the Mesmerized subject is like a child, in 
whom the will is not yet formed; but the child has a 
self-will, and oftentimes a stubborn one, which the 
trance subject has not. 5. It is also said that the 
entranced are like monomaniacs, who have lost the 
controlling will-power; but the monomaniac has a 
will, and cannot be controlled, though it is not his 
ordinary will. The truth is that the conforming 
trance is unlike any other form of monomania som- 
nambulism, or sleep, in the fact that it is conforming. 
The conforming propensities, when excited to a cer- 
tain pitch, become what lawyers would term the quasi 
will; that is, they act as though they were the actual 



268 MYSTERIES OF HEAD AND HEART. 

and normal wilL In cases of monomania, we say that 
the patient is not himself. By this expression they 
mean that the faculties, which in health constitute the 
will, are pushed aside, and their places filled with 
other faculties, which, in the normal and healthy state 
of the brain, are habitually subordinate. St. Paul 
said, " I have a law (a power,) in my members, warring 
against the law (the power,) of my mind, (my will.") 
When the power in these members overcome, they 
enact the part of the will, until, in turn, they are 
dethroned by the higher powers of the mind. 

Every person is occasionally conscious of a struggle 
going on in his mind between his different propensi- 
ties. He may, and frequently does, change his mind — 
his will — several times in a day, or even in an hour. 
In some instances the scale is so nearly balanced that 
he really has no mind — will — of his own; the slightest 
circumstance may decide him one way or another. If 
his conforming organs predominate over his govern- 
ing organs, he does not change his will himself, but 
he allows it to be changed by the influences of others, 
he is then said to be deficient in self- will. 

HISTORY AND THEORIES OF MESMERISM. 

The ancients attributed trance, as they did insanity 
and a thousand other things, to the agency of super- 
natural beings. In 1784, during the reign of Louis 
the XVI, Mesmer, a Swiss physician, appeared in 
Paris, and by his experiments, produced so much 
excitement that the government appointed a commis- 
sion, of which Dr. Franklin was one, to examine the 
subject and report upon its merits. This was the first 
attempt at a scientific investigation of these phe- 



HEAD AND HEART UNBALANCED. 269 

nomena; and it is 'perhaps not far from the truth to 
assert that Mesmer's theory, and the report of the 
commission contain, essentially, all that has been 
advanced by scientists since that time. Mesmer main- 
tained that the human brain generates a peculiar 
species of magnetic fluid, which the will can project 
to indefinite distances, into the brains and bodies of 
certain susceptible persons, curing their diseases, put- 
ting them to sleep, and producing various other re- 
markable effects. This theory is still believed in by a 
majority of the people of this country, and is assumed 
as the basis of reasoning by nearly or quite all the 
Spiritists. Dr. Franklin and his associates reported 
that the theory of a magnetic, or fluid of any kind, was 
unproved and untenable, and that most of the extra- 
ordinary phenomena exhibited by the subjects could 
be accounted for by the effects of expectation and 
imagination. This is the sum and substance of the 
theories now maintained by Dr. Carpenter and other 
prominent British physiologists. Mesmerism did not 
attract public attention in this country until 1837, 
when Dr. Hartshorn first performed some experiments 
in the city of Providence, notices of which, in the 
New York papers, induced amateurs in all parts of the 
country to procure " Deleuze's book on Mesmerism," 
and try their own powers. In 1841 a new impulse 
was given to the subject by the announcement of Dr. 
J. R. Buchanan, of Cincinnati, and Leroy Sunderland, 
of ]STew York, that the phrene organs could be sepa- 
rately excited in susceptible subjects. Dr. Buchanan 
found, as he thought; that those effects could be pro- 
duced upon persons who were not asleep, or in a 



270 MYSTERIES OF HEAD A1STD HEAET. 

trance, though they had a tendency to go into that 
condition. 

In 1838, while I was publishing my new system 
(classification) of phrenology, in Buffalo, N. Y., Mr. 
Wing Russel, a highly respectable citizen, introduced 
Mesmerism into that city, and among others, taught 
me to practice it. When, in 1841, Dr. Buchanan 
announced his success in exciting separate phrene 
organs, by touching the heads of susceptible persons, I 
took up the subject in earnest, and made a series of 
careful experiments, the results ol which I stated in 
numerous public lectures, and embodied in a volume of 
about four hundred pages, published in Boston by 
James Munroe & Co., and in London, Strand, Edward 
T. Whitfield, 1845. I did not then understand the 
physiology o± the emotions, as explained in these 
pages, and had no idea ot the depressing effects of the 
conforming propensities upon the vital functions. 
This was a subsequent discovery; but the following 
extract will show that even then I repudiated the 
practices of Mesmerists, and clearly perceived that the 
conforming propensities ol the subject were the prin- 
cipal sources of the power that subdued his will and 
made him subservient to the operator. 

CJREDENCIVE INDUCTION. 

"'While engaged in performing various experiments, I made a 
very important discovery, which I have never before communi- 
cated to the public, in writing, though I have frequently men- 
tioned it privately to my friends, and publicly in my lectures. 
It is this: that, when a subject is but slightly affected, and when 
any of the operators in Mesmerism, or neurology, or pathetism 
would send him away as unprofitable — merely by the applica- 
tion of a very simple stimulus, which every one has always at 



HEAD AND HEART UNBALANCED. 271 

hand, the subject may*be brought perfectly under your control. 
Do you ask me what this simple and powerful stimulus is ? 1 
answer, that it is an assertion. 

"Assert to the subject, in a decided tone, for instance: ' You 
cannot open your eyes,' 1 and if his eyes were shut when you made 
the assertion, he cannot open them afterwards, until you again 
say, ' Now you can open them,'' or something to that effect. Again, 
say to the subject, '■Put your hands together, and you cannot sep- 
arate them.'' If, now, he puts his hands together, he will try in 
vain to separate them until you reverse your assertion. Say, ' The 
floor is hot,' and instantly, to him, it seems hot. 

" In order to explain these experiments, we must first under- 
stand the nature of the organ of Credenciveness — the impulse to 
act upon testimony or assertion. It is a conforming social impulse, 
and its natural stimulus is an assertion. 

" When greatly excited by any extraordinary stimulus, it gov- 
erns the individual, and produces such uncontrollable tendencies 
to gratify itself, as to constitute a peculiar species of monomania. 
" It is generally supposed by those who see experiments of this 
kind performed, that the operator accompanies his assertion by 
an effort of his will. This, however, is not the case. If the 
operator makes an assertion, it will have nearly as much effect, 
though he wills that it shall have no effect whatever. This 
proves, that it is the assertion and not the will. We are so con- 
stituted, that we take the assertions of our fellow-beings as the 
true expressions of their wills, and we sometimes believe them, in 
spite of all our efforts to resist the belief. 

" If the process of induction did not operate as a stimulus to 
the conforming Socials in particular, if it stimulated the govern- 
ing equally with the conforming Socials, the oxperiments which 
depend upon the influence of assertion could not be performed 
at all. 

" Strange as it may seem, however, it is a fact, that a person of 
intelligence and education, with whom I am acquainted, although 
I have explained to him the nature of the influence which I have 
obtained over him — although he knows as well as I do that it 
is his own Credenciveness that paralyzes his muscles, yet when 
I assert that he cannot open his eyes, he instantly loses all con- 
trol orer them." 

Although I had then made an important advance, I 



272 MYSTERIES OF HEAD AND HEART. 

had discovered but half the truth. There were many 
phenomena still unexplained. What produces the 
Mesmeric sleep — the trance? Why, when subjects 
are Mesmerized, do their hands become cold and clam- 
my with p respiration ? Why does the breathing 
become tremulous, and why do the limbs tremble? 
Do the conforming propensities produce these effects, 
and, if so, what is the physiological explanation? 
After many experiments, I became satisfied that nearly 
all the symptoms were produced by the unusual excite- 
ment of the single organ of Submissiveness or Rever- 
ence, and that most of its effects were precisely like 
those produced by fear. After Submissiveness had 
produced the trance, the other conforming propensi- 
ties manifested themselves in an extraordinary man- 
ner. Here is the key to all the phenomena. The 
upper front region of the brain is the spirit land, in 
which all the fairies, witches, superstitions and won- 
ders of the world are born. I do not mean to say that 
such are the legitimate fruits of those high and noble 
faculties; they are its abnormal productions; wild and 
monstrous weeds and tares that, in the absence of 
proper care and cultivation, spring up here, and find 
congenial soil. Submissiveness or Reverence is the 
natural impulse to submit to proper authority, and 
obey its laws. In ignorance it prompts to slavish 
submission to usurped authority, and to the worship 
of myths and senseless idols. Kindness is the impulse 
to do good to all, even to the enemies of God and man. 
In ignorance, it prompts men to send relief to the poor 
with one hand, while they light the fires of persecution 
with the other. Imitativeness is the impulse to sur- 
render our habits and manners, and adopt the habits 



HEAD A1STD HEAET THSTB A LANCED. 273 

and manners of others, good or bad. Credenciveness 
is the impulse to believe what others say — to give 
up our own opinions, and even to disbelieve our own 
senses, if opposed to the assertions of others. It is 
easy to understand that when those four impulses are 
dominant in the mind, it requires but little Mesmer- 
ism to make it perfectly subordinate. When we con- 
sider that the success of the Mesmeric experiments 
depend upon the sovereignty of the conforming pro- 
pensities, it will be evident that any circumstances 
that are calculated to interfere with that sovereignty, 
will tend to prevent success. Among those opposing 
or unfavorable circumstances may be enumerated: 
1. The excitement of the pride, or vanity, or combat- 
iveness of the subject; or, indeed, his unwillingness, 
from any cause to give the experiment a fair trial. 2. 
A want of respect for the operator, or a want of confi- 
dence in his ability or integrity. 3. An ignorant fear 
that the experiment, if successful, may injure the 
health or the social position of the subject. 4. A dis- 
belief in the whole matter, and a consequent want of 
reverence for all engaged in it. 5. A disposition to 
act with levity or contempt on the part of the company. 
The favoring circumstances are: 1. The manifest 
ability and fairness of the operator, and the confidence 
of all concerned in him. 2. A perfect willingness on 
the part of the subject to treat the matter seriously, 
sincerely and respectfully ; for this reason it is gener- 
erally pleasanter to perform the experiments with 
religious persons, who are in the habit of behaving 
reverentially. 3. To have a company present who are 
either favorable to the experiment or passive and quiet. 
4. The experiment is much more likely to be success- 



274 MYSTEEIES OF HEAD AND HEART. 

fill, after those who propose to try it have witnessed it 
successfully performed upon others whom they know 
and esteem. 5. It is more likely to succeed if the per- 
sons who try it are confident that they will not be 
made to do anything ridiculous or unbecoming, but 
tliat, on the contrary, they will behave admirably. 

PRACTICAL INSTRUCTIONS, . 

CONCERNING THE MANNER OE INDUCING- THE TRANCE 
IN THE PRESENCE OF AN AUDIENCE. 

We are so much in the habit of requiring silence 
and privacy, when going to sleep, that it is difficult to 
make people understand that we can produce the 
trance sleep more readily in a public assembly, with 
a thousand eyes upon us, than we can in private. 
But the mystery disappears when we understand that 
the trance sleep is produced by the excitement of- Sub- 
missiveness, or reverence, and that a public audience 
is itself an object of reverence, and even of awe, to 
those not accustomed to it. I frequently meet a small 
company of jovial friends who urge me to entrance 
them privately, just for the fun of the thing, and 
under circumstances where scarcely any one can keep 
from talking, and all are ready to scream with laugh- 
ter upon the first excuse. The principal difficulty of 
the operator in such cases is to produce a serious and 
respectful frame of mind on the part of the whole 
company. I never fail to have successful experiments 
in public audiences when the mental " conditions " are 
sufficiently serious and respectful, and there is a gen- 
eral willingness on the part of volunteers to try the 
experiment in good faith. It is. not necessary for the 
subjects to believe anything in particular in relation 



HEAD AND HEART UNBALANCED. 275 

to the matter, provided they are willing to assume a 
passive, respectful attitude, and are sincere in their 
professions of willingness to be affected, provided they 
have the requisite susceptibility. I have often put 
persons into the trance in a few minutes who only 
tried the experiment in the spirit of fun. But such 
persons were naturally very susceptible, though they 
had no idea of it. There are many people who can 
only be entranced when they voluntarily surrender 
themselves, and, as it were, invite the influence by their 
perfect conformity of body and mind. It is frequently 
asserted that only one in fifteen can be affected ; some 
say one in ten; the highest number that I have heard 
mentioned is one in six; yet I have frequently seen a 
large audience so " wrought up " that when eight or 
ten came upon the platform, all were so much affected 
-in three minutes that they could not open their eyes, 
or speak, and afterwards another equal number were 
affected in the same manner. At other times, when 
the "conditions" were unfavorable, all experiments 
failed. I have, on such occasions, been much amused 
to hear men who pretended to very profound knowl- 
edge on this subject, attribute the failures to the 
peculiar electric state of the atmosphere, while I 
knew very well that the difficulty was in the mental 
state of the audience. 

I find, by reading the treatise of Dr. Tuke, that Mr. 
Braid, of Manchester, England, induces the trance 
(which he denominates hypnotism) by taking "a bright 
object between the thumb and fore and middle fingers 
of the left hand and holding it from about eight to 
fifteen inches from the eyes at such a distance above 
the forehead as may be necessary to ]Droduce the great- 



276 MYSTERIES OF HEAD AND HEART. 

est possible strain upon the eyes and eyelids, and 
enable the patient to maintain a steady, fixed stare at 
the object." Mr. Braid then proceeds to exhibit the 
same phenomena as other operators do. It is only 
necessary for me to remark that I obtain precisely 
similar results by allowing the subjects to sit or to 
stand with their eyes closed, that Mr. Braid does by 
his method. I have not the slightest idea, therefore, 
that there is any causal connection between the staring 
at the bright object and the trance which results; no 
effects will follow the staring if the subject is not con- 
stitutionally susceptible, and if he is so, almost any 
ceremony, seriously performed, will answer the same 
purpose, provided the mind of the subject is in the 
right condition. 

Dr. Carpenter, after describing some of the won- 
derful effects produced upon biologized or Mesmerized 
subjects, adds : " The chief marvel lies in the discov- 
ery that a continued, steady gaze at a fixed object will 
induce this peculiar state in certain individuals — 
chiefly such as are constitutionally predisposed to 
abstraction and reverie, or who possess that kind of 
imaginative power which transports them without 
efforts into scenes and circumstances altogether differ- 
ent from those which usually surround them. The 
proportion of those who are susceptible are from one 
in twelve to one in twenty. 

Dr. Carpenter regards the trance of hypnotized or 
Mesmerized subjects as ordinary sleep. He says, in 
his " Mental Physiology," " One of the most remark- 
able phenomena of this (hypnotic or trance) condition 
is the superinduction of genuine sleep." And the 
doctor proceeds to argue that it is induced by the 



HEAD AND HEAET UNBALANCED. 277 

t 
same kind of monotony and mental inactivity that 

tends to produce ordinary sleep. In this last remark 

Dr. Carpenter is mistaken. The fact is that a really 

very susceptible person can be put into a trance or 

sleep amid noise and confusion, and cannot be wakened 

by any ordinary means except by the command of the 

operator. He is also mistaken in his supposition that 

persons inclined to reverie and abstraction are more 

susceptible than others. The causes of susceptibility 

are to be found in the bodily and not the mental 

organs. 

ASCERTAINING SUSCEPTIBILITY. 

Let from four to eight persons stand in a row facing 
the company, all present preserving the utmost serious- 
ness, each subject placing the palms of the hands 
together and closing the eyes. These circumstances 
are calculated to excite reverence, and do excite it at 
once. If the operator will pass along the line of sub- 
jects and listen to their respirations, he will generally 
hear one or more of them breathing in an unusual 
manner — a kind of short, spasmodic or trembling 
movement of the lungs. Now let him take hold of 
the fingers (see Engraving) and he will find the very 
extremities of them cold, the coldness gradually 
extending up toward the middle of the hand. The 
pulse will be about a third more rapid but weaker 
than usual. The subject will occasionally swallow, 
as if saliva or mucus is accumulating in his throat, 
as it probably is; the limbs are more or less trem- 
ulous, and the expression of the countenance serious 
and reverential. If you see one of the set smiling, 
you may know that his reverence does not yet pre- 



278 MYSTEKIES OF HEAD AND HEART. 

dominate, for, if it did, it would manifest itself in his 
countenance. A beautiful woman, when entranced, 
has an expression of the face that seems almost holy, 
"like one inspired." 

I have described the symptoms as they are generally 
exhibited, but in some cases the manifestations are 
much more decided and extreme; the trembling is 
almost violent and even spasmodic; or the sleep 
becomes profound; occasionally the subject turns 
extremely pale, and becomes faint, especially if his 
health is delicate. The operator should be looking 
for this, and as soon as he perceives it he should speak 
to the subject and tell him to go to his seat, and that 
he will feel well presently. Sometimes the subjects 
act hysterically, and the spectators and friends begin 
to be alarmed, but there is no danger. Let the operator 
be calm and self-possessed. If the subject is really 
under the Mesmeric influence only, he will presently 
recover. If he does not, you may be sure that some 
other cause produces the effects. I once had a subject, 
a student at Williamstown College, suddenly exhibit 
violent insanity, but I afterwards learned that he fre- 
quently suffered from such attacks. People who are 
subject to hysterical affections are liable to manifest 
some of the symptoms when Mesmerized, especially 
if by doing so they can become objects of interest 
and attention. Occasionally you will find a subject 
in whom the bodily symptoms are manifested, but 
whose mind is unsubdued. In other instances the 
mind yields, and the subject is perfectly conforming, 
without manifesting the usual bodily symptoms. This 
proves that the circulation in the brain may be dimin- 
ished without affecting that of the body, and the con- 



HEAD AND HEAET UNBALANCED. 279 

trary. Those who Are in the habit of going into the 
trance are affected but slightly in the body, while the 
brain is perfectly conforming. 

MANNER OF INDUCING THE STATE OF DREAMING AND 

HALLUCINATION IN PERSONS WHO ARE FOUND 

TO BE SUSCEPTIBLE. 

Mesmerism is a species of sleep and a species of 
dreaming. I have sufficiently explained the sleep, its 
causes and the manner of producing it. I will now 
describe the manner of evolving the dreams after the 
trance sleep has been developed. It is somewhat 
analogous to that of ordinary sleep and dreaming. It 
is a mistake to suppose that in common sleep we 
dream most when sound asleep. The truth is that 
we dream most when the least asleep, if we are asleep 
at all. I do not doubt that in some instances the 
whole brain is awake and dreaming, while only the 
external senses are perfectly asleep. In other instances 
the external senses and some parts of the brain appear 
to be perfectly awake while other parts are evidently 
asleep. This seems to be the case with sleep-walkers. 
Many persons, during ordinary sleep, will answer ques- 
tions put to them by a familiar acquaintance, and their 
minds can thus be directed to any subject that the 
questioner desires; afterwards, when fully awake, 
they do not always recollect the conversation. Some- 
times, while asleep, the sound of distant music starts 
a dreaming train of thoughts and emotions relating 
to a dancing party, or to a religious meeting, in which 
we recognize old friends; a rumbling noise overhead 
may cause a dream concerning a thunder storm; lying 
under a heavy load of bedclothes may suggest a dream 



280 MYSTEEIES OF HEAD AND HEAET. 

that we are being crushed beneath a falling building. 
It is not unusual for people, especially children, to 
talk in their sleep, or to act as if embracing or light- 
ing. These manifestations belong in the same category 
as sleep-walking. In performing experiments in Mes- 
merism, or in developing the so-called spirit mediums, 
we proceed on the same principle. When a number 
of persons stand before an audience with their eyes 
closed, and all present are serious, in less than a min- 
ute the operator will discover evidence that the circu- 
lation of one or more is becoming diminished. He 
will at once elect the one that appears to be the most 
affected, make him step a little forward and thus sep- 
arate him from the others, and proceed to make him 
dream. Put a pencil into his hand and place his arm 
in a position as if he were going to write, and whis- 
per to him and say, "Now your hand will move just 
as if you were writing; it will make large letters 
and write a long line." Then take hold of his hand 
and commence the desired movement. If the subject 
is in the requisite dreaming condition, his hand will 
move as if writing. Now bring his hand back to the 
first position and say, "Now your hand will move 
again and will write the name of a dear friend who 
is dead. Take notice of the name and tell me what 
it is." His hand will then move and appear to write 
in the air, and if you ask him what name it wrote, he 
will generally say, " It is the name of my father," or 
mother, or sister, or of some other departed friend. 
Now ask him if he moved his hand intentionally, 
and if he by his will wrote the name, and he will 
answer that he did not. I believe it was Judge 
Edmonds who remarked, when he held a pencil, " The 



HEAD AND HEART UNBALANCED. 281 
+ 

spirit moved my hand, but did not move my mind ; 
for what I wrote did not pass through my mind." 
JSTow say to the subject, " Your hand will move again 
and your departed friend will write a communication 
to you." If he is in the proper condition, his hand 
will move in the air as if writing a communication. 
Ask the subject and he will generally, if he is an intelli- 
gent person, tell you what the spirit writes. When you 
are satisfied that the subject is sufficiently conform- 
ing, you can tell him to open his eyes, and take the 
pencil and sit at the table, and ask the spirit to move 
his hand and write communications on paper, and the 
spirit will do it. Of course the communication of the 
"spirit" is the offspring of your suggestions begotten 
upon his dreaming brain. 

After a few trials, there are many persons who can 
put themselves into the trance, and write or talk or see 
visions without the aid of an operator. They are what 
the spiritists denominate mediums; in reality they are 
emotional dreamers. 

In the city of Detroit a society was organized, one 
object of which was to perform experiments in trance 
and Mesmerism. One gentleman, Mr. Hawley, a 
member of the legislature, after having repeatedly 
stood up with others in the usual manner to try to 
get entranced, succeeded at one of the meetings of 
the society in going into a trance by standing up, 
putting his hands together, and seriously endeavor- 
ing to bring upon himself the right condition of 
mind. He had previously declared that if he did 
get entranced he hoped that he should make a political 
speech. Accordingly, while in the trance, he actually 
made a violent democratic harangue. When he awoke, 



282 MYSTERIES OF HEAD AND HEART. 

he declared upon his honor that he did not recollect 
speaking at all. Several of the members of the 
society who were known to be susceptible, and who 
had been Mesmerized before, demonstrated, by repeated 
experiments, that they could lay down a programme 
of proceedings beforehand, and go into the trance and 
perform it, neither more nor less, and then, when 
awake, have no recollection of what they had done. 
They could also awake at a time previously agreed 
upon. One young gentleman named Davis, who was 
a good subject, on one occasion when I was present, 
said to the company, " I will try to go into the trance, 
hop all around the room on one foot, sing a comic song, 
and in ten minutes awake and not recollect anything 
that I have done." To the great amusement of his 
friends, he carried out the programme, and when he 
awoke he turned and asked, " Did I really do it all? " 
He then solemnly declared that he had no recollection 
of it. He then tried the experiment again, with a 
determination expressed beforehand that he would 
recollect it, and he did so. 

Some individuals, in consequence of constitutional 
disease or weakness, go into the trance state sponta- 
neously, and become ecstatics, visionaries and prophets. 
If they live in a superstitious community, they will 
be regarded as possessing " more than mortal knowl- 
edge"; and even in the most cultivated social centres 
there is a class of apparently superior persons — poets, 
metaphysicians and myth-loving scientists — who seem 
to be incapable of taking physiological views of the 
subject. They puzzle themselves with psychic and 
odylic forces, and auras and electric and magnetic 



HEAD AND HEART UNBALANCED. 283 



D 



analogies, and a score of other myths, that only exist 
in their own "heat-oppressed brains." 

To make a vision-seeing medium, you have only to 
say to the subject, while his eyes are closed, " See, 
yonder in the sky is a beautiful rainbow; there it is! 
Do you not see it?" He will point to it and say yes. 
Tell him that the river Jordan is rolling beneath the 
rainbow, and that on the other side of the river is the 
beautiful spirit land. He will declare that he sees 
them. Now tell him to look and he will see the forms 
of the spirits, and that among them he can recognize 
one of his own departed friends, and he will instantly 
do so. Now ask him to listen and he will hear the 
spirits sing something that he knows, and that he 
must join and sing with them, and if a good singer 
he will do it. In the same manner he can be made to 
converse or shake hands with the spirit of any departed 
friend you suggest. These scenes can be, and some- 
times are, made exceedingly solemn, and even pathetic; 
so much so that it is difficult for one unacquainted 
with the subject to believe that it is all a mere dream. 
If the subject has an active mind and a cultivated 
poetical taste, he will sometimes proceed spontane- 
ously and without further suggestions to point out 
the beautiful things of which he is dreaming. 

The engraving represents one of these who on being 
asked by the operator to look into the distance and 
describe what he saw, seemed delighted with the 
vision, and exclaimed, " I see a beautiful rainbow, and 
beyond, beneath the arch, I see the spirit land, and I 
hear the spirits sing." He then listened and beat the 
time of the music with his hand. I asked him if he 
knew the tune; he said, " No; but it surpasses all the 



284 MYSTEEIES OF HEAD AND HEART. 

music I ever heard." I then requested the spirits to 
sing something that he knew, and after listening a 
moment he joined with them to sing: 



" O, could I speak the matchless worth, 
O, could I sound the glories forth 

That in my Saviour shine, 
I'd soar and touch the heavenly strings, 
And vie with Gabriel while he sings 

In notes almost divine." 

As soon as he began to sing, several other entranced 
persons who were on the stage joined and sang with 
him, to the infinite delight of the audience. 

Now let the operator suggest something that is 
absurd, ridiculous and impossible, that the spirit land 
is full of buffoons and monkeys, or that on the rain- 
bow sits his sweetheart eating peanuts and throwing 
the shells at him, and hitting him in the eyes ; he will 
instantly dream this, and act and suffer accordingly. 
There is a strong temptation to amuse a company of 
spectators with these grotesque and laughable experi- 
ments, but they should never be performed except 
with the previous consent of the subject, and the unani- 
mous approbation of his friends. They are useful, 
however, in demonstrating that all the other mental 
manifestations, including those of the "spirit medi- 
ums," are mere dreams suggested by the operator, or 
pre-existing in the mind of the subject. Persons who 
voluntarily put themselves into the reverential dream- 
ing state, can proceed to speak or write or perform in 
any manner which they had previously resolved that 
they would. The speaking mediums, among the 
spiritists, often perform the same feat. In some 



HEAD AND HEART UNBALANCED. 285 

* 

instances, I presume that they really believe that they 
are actually inspired by spirits. 

TWO OPPOSING WILLS. 

We are now prepared to understand another class 
of experiments, to which I have not before alluded. 
Say to the subject, "You cannot put your hat on." 
He takes the hat and tries to put it on, but his hand 
moves the hat to one side and then to the other side, 
but will not obey his will. He seems to make great 
efforts and nearly succeed, and then repeats his efforts, 
but in vain. Tell him that he cannot sit down, or get 
up, or open his eyes, or speak, and he tries and fails in 
the same manner. The modern spiritists, and some 
others, assert that there are two wills contending; that 
one is the will of the operator, and the other that of 
the subject; but it is easy to prove that this is not 
true. Any one who will perform the experiment, will 
find that the mere unexpressed will of the operator is 
ineffectual. The truth is, that both the contending 
forces are in the brain of the subject himself — ■ one 
force is his own proper and normal will, and this is 
rendered abortive by the superior force of the con- 
forming faculties. 

In Judge Edmonds' book on Spiritualism, he gives 
an account of a performance with a table, which several 
men could not hold still. In spite of their efforts, the 
spirits pushed it over and held it down until the 
spirits were requested to allow it to be raised, when it 
was lifted with great ease. In this case, one force was 
supposed to be the wills of the men who had hold of 
the table, and the other force to be exerted by some 



286 MYSTERIES OF HEAD AND HEART. 

invisible spirit. In reality, both forces resided in the 
brains of the distinguished operators themselves. 

I often perform an experiment involving the same 
principles, in the presence of large audiences. After 
a person is found to be susceptible and conforming, I 
ask him to take hold of a table and hold it still if he 
can; I then ask the spirit to push it over toward him. 
He will take hold of the table, and while he seems to 
be holding it up, an unseen power appears to be push- 
ing it over. He is, in reality, holding it up with one 
hand and pulling it over with the other. If his con- 
forming organs are sufficiently excited, the experiment 
will succeed perfectly; the table will go over, and he 
will be unable to raise it again until I request the 
spirit to allow him to do so. 

I usually call on the spirit of Sampson to push the 
table over, and at the same time urge the young man, 
the subject, to hold it up. If the audience are unac- 
quainted with Mesmerism, and inclined to believe in 
spiritism, they generally regard me as a wonderful 
medium, and suppose that a spirit is really moving the 
table. To give greater effect to the performance, I use 
encouraging language to both parties. I say : " Push, 
young man! push, spirit! push, both of you!" (See 
the engraving.) Sometimes I have two or three sub- 
jects take hold of the table, and in trying to hold it 
they occasionally demolish it. 

HOW TO WAKE A SUBJECT AND THBOW OFF THE 
INFLUENCE. 

The old Mesmerizers made passes with their hands 
over the subject, from his head downwards, and at the 
same time exerted their wills to produce the Mesmeric 



HEAD AND HEART UNBALANCED. 287 
» 

sleep. In order to wake and restore him, they reversed 
the movement, and commanded him to wake. Now, 
that we understand the matter more perfectly, we 
know that the passes and the exertions of the will are 
useless. The only thing necessary is to make the sub- 
ject understand that you wish him to wake and 
resume his normal state. It is generally sufficient to 
speak to him decidedly and tell him that he is awake 
and may go to his seat as usual; but if he has an idea 
that some particular ceremony is necessary to restore 
him, it will be well to indulge him. A man was 
brought to Boston, from Dan vers (about fifteen miles), 
who had been Mesmerized, and who had been unable 
to open his eyes for six weeks. The person who Mes- 
merized him had. not the power to restore him. His 
friends had heard that I was a very powerful magnet- 
izer, and that I could perform wonders by my mag- 
netic power/ Of course this was all delusion; I had 
no more power than any one else; but when the man 
was brought before me, accompanied by his weeping 
wife and several friends, I saw that it was necessary 
for me to pretend that I was possessed of all the power 
that had been ascribed to me. I therefore performed 
several apparently mysterious ceremonies, and then 
commanded him to open his eyes, which he did. The 
subject, in this case, was in the same condition that 
hysterical patients often are. He believed that the 
power which had shut his eyes was very wonderful, 
and that they would never open again. He submitted 
to his fate like a corforming monomaniac. He had 
lost confidence in the man who had Mesmerized him; 
but, as the Boston newspapers represented me as pos- 
sessing tremendous magnetic power, he conformed to 



288 MYSTERIES OF HEAD AND HEART. 

that opinion and returned home confirmed in it, declar- 
ing that he felt a shock and a thrill all over him, the 
moment I touched him. 

INFLUENCE OF IMITATIVENESS AND CKEDENCIVENESS IN 
TKANCE MANIFESTATIONS. 

I have stated that Mesmerism depends upon the 
dominance of the conforming socials, but I have hith- 
erto only described the abnormal influence of one of 
them. I am convinced that Submissiveness or Rev- 
erence is the principal, and perhaps the only agent, in 
producing the trance sleep, but every one who has had 
much experience in the practice of trance experiments 
is aware of the remarkable tendency of subjects to 
oblige, to imitate, and to believe. Suggest to one of 
them that he is an orator, an elephant, a lion, a drum- 
mer, or a singer, and he will proceed to enact the 
character according to the best of his abilities. If he 
has a natural, and especially if he has a cultivated 
talent for any particular art, he will frequently delight 
and surprise the spectators by his performances. The 
speaking mediums among the spiritists sometimes 
produce a powerful impression upon an audience by 
their beautiful dramatic manner of speaking. The 
fact that they surpass their ordinary and normal per- 
formances, convinces some people that they are actu- 
ally under spirit influence. But any one who is 
familiar with camp-meetings of religious people, and 
has seen women religiously entranced, and heard 
them pray and exhort, can bear testimony that, under 
the influence of religious emotions, they surpass their 
normal selves in the same extraordinary manner. 

In regard to Credenciveness, it requires no argu- 



HEAD AND HEAET UNBALANCED. 289 

ment to convince any one who has witnessed many 
Mesmeric experiments, that the believing propensity 
is greatly excited in the subjects. They believe, and 
instantly act upon the belief of the most incredible, 
absurd and impossible things. It is worthy of espe- 
cial remark, that entranced persons never spontane- 
ously manifest any propensity in a decided manner 
except the four conforming propensities. They never 
exhibit anger or pride, or stubbornness. They are 
never vulgar or indecorous, or even jocular, unless the 
ideas are suggested to them by the operator. They 
are in a condition to receive impressions, and not to 
make them upon others unless incited to do so by the 
operator. 

RELATION OF TRANCE TO POETIC GENIUS. 

The conforming social propensities have so large a 
share of influence in producing mental phenomena, 
that it is important to acquire correct ideas concern- 
ing their proper, and also their abnormal manifesta- 
tions, we should contrast the conduct of those in 
whom they are deficient with those in whom they are 
uncommonly developed; we should also observe the 
different manner in which they are exhibited by the 
ignorant and by the educated; by the profound think- 
ers, and by the superficial; we shall then be prepared 
to understand the extravagances of persons under the 
influence of Mesmerism, trance, and spiritism. 

When we clearly understand and fully appreciate 
the fact that persons who are entranced have the con- 
forming organs greatly excited, we shall expect to see 
them manifesting some sparks of the genius that dis- 
tinguishes those writers and speakers in whom those 



290 MYSTERIES OF HEAD AND HEART. 

organs are very large. Nearly all great poets belong 
to this class. The tendency of such minds is to con- 
ceive of the existence of unreal beings, ideal creations, 
spirits of the mind, " false creations, proceeding from 
the heat-oppressed brain," " such bodiless creations, 
ecstacy (trance,) is very cunning in." With this basis 
for reasoning, we are prepared to understand the 
extemporaneous ideal rhapsodies of speaking medi- 
ums, some of Avhom, with very little education or 
social refinement, pour forth a copious stream of poet- 
ical prose language, which, in their ordinary condi- 
tion, they could not possibly have uttered. They are 
denominated inspirational speakers, and it is believed 
by some of their friends that they are actually inspired 
by spirits. The truth is, they are inspired by their 
own excited conforming propensities. We never see 
them spontaneously expressing rage, pride, stubborn- 
ness, amorousness, avarice, or fear; these propensi- 
ties are not excited. They are gentle, kind, liberal, 
respectful, poetical, and dramatic. The Italian im- 
provvisatores exhibit the same extraordinary abilities. 
I have seen mediums, in private families, go into the 
trance state and converse with great beauty and skill, 
and guess the characters, motives, and diseases of dif- 
ferent persons in the company, with such acutehess 
that inexperienced people could not resist the convic- 
tion that they possessed "more than mortal knowl- 
edge." 

The common opinion of Phrenologists is that 
poetical talent depends principally upon the organ of 
Ideality or Perfectiveness. Dr. Gall discovered what 
he supposed was the organ of poetry. I have made a 
great many observations of this organ, and find that 



HEAD AND HEART UNBALANCED. 291 

Credenciveness is ■ much niore intimately related to 
literature, and especially to poetry, than Ideality is. 
The latter is more especially related to the fine arts, 
and the former to romance and the exaggerations in 
which poetry abounds. 

Persons with the conforming social propensities 
large, when in the normal state, are more desirous 
than others to acquire historical, biographical, literary 
and traditional knowledge. In the absence ot this 
kind of knowledge, or of the ability to appreciate it, 
they indulge in romances and myths. This being the 
normal tendency of these faculties, we can readily 
understand that when they are abnormally excited by 
the Mesmeric, or any analogous process, they would 
incline strongly in the same direction. They are 
hungry for impressions of some extraordinary kind. 
If there is any such thing as a clairvoyant faculty they 
are certainly in a condition to exercise it. If there is 
no such faculty, they are still capable of appearing to 
possess it, and of sincerely believing that they do so. 
Their minds are often so acute, active, and shrewd, 
that it requires a cool, clear head on the part of the 
observer to keep from being misled into the belief that 
they really do perceive things that are supposed to be 
"beyond the reaches of our souls." 

THE RELATION OF THE IMAGINATION TO THE EMOTIONS. 

The emotions may be excited in a variety of modes. 
1. By the presentation to the senses of objects that are 
directly related to them. The sight or sound or smell 
of prey excites the destructive propensity of a ferocious 
animal; the sight of gold excites the acquisitive pro- 



292 MYSTERIES OF HEAD AND HEART. 

pensity; certain sensations from the body excite the 
related propensities and appetites. 

2. Hearing or reading descriptions of the objects 
that gratify the propensities frequently excites the 
emotions. 

3. The propensities and emotions are oftentimes 
excited by the operations of the imagination alone. 
A man may imagine a scene in which he is grossly 
insulted until he finds his face reddening with anger, 
his fists clenched, and his teeth firmly set. He can 
also imagine a scene of danger and horror, until his 
cheek is blanched, his limbs tremble, and the cold 
sweat exudes from his skin. Some persons possess 
this imagining art in a wonderful degree. It was 
said that Garrick could turn deathly pale, while 
playing the part of Hamlet, the moment he saw 
the ghost of his father. I have heard that Madame 
Rachelle possessed this power, and I certainly saw 
Miss Herron turn suddenly and appropriately pale, 
while performing in Cincinnati, on hearing of or im- 
agining a dreadful calamity. In these cases the voice, 
the expression, the language, the ideas and the gestures 
all conspire to produce a powerful effect upon the 
audience. Some persons insist that there is a species 
of magnetic communication in these instances, whereas 
it is merely the legitimate effect of the natural lan- 
guage of the emotions on the part of the speaker, 
causing similar emotions in the imitative mind of the 
hearers. When I was a boy, in passing through the 
Boston museum, I suddenly saw near me the painting 
of a maniac, who seemed ready to spring upon me 
from the canvass. I started back with the utmost 
terror but the magnetism was all in my own eye. An 



HEAD AND HEART UNBALANCED. 293 

orator whose ideas interest an audience, and who has 
the natural gift, well cultivated, of expressing the 
emotions, is always magnetic. 

THE RELATION OF THE EMOTIONS TO DISEASES. 

When we consider that a great number of diseases 
are produced by some derangement of the circulation 
of the blood, and when we also take into the account 
the great influence of the emotions upon the circula- 
tion, we can readily conceive that the emotions must 
exercise a powerful influence in mitigating or in 
aggravating disease. The emotions only produce their 
effects by increasing or by diminishing the vital action. 
They may increase or diminish the circulation, the 
secretions, the digestion, the action of the liver, the 
kidneys, the intestines, and the skin. In fact there is 
no part of the constitution but can be affected in an 
instant by the emotions; and if a particular emotional 
condition becomes chronic, the emotional influence 
upon the body, whatever it is, becomes chronic also, 
and varies for good or evil the state of the health. 
Physicians, without being acquainted with the true 
physiology of the emotions, have long been well 
acquainted with the fact that they exert a powerful 
influence upon their patients. In describing many 
diseases they refer to certain conditions of the mind 
as attendants and symptoms. They have learned by 
experience that some symptoms of bodily disease have 
their origin in the emotions of disappointed love, 
ambition or avarice, and they can suggest no better 
remedy than a change of society and of scenery. They 
can seldom minister with mere drugs to "a mind 
diseased." 



294 MYSTERIES OF HEAD AND HEART. 

When it is known that one particular disease re- 
quires for its cure the excitement of those emotions 
that increase the vigor of the circulation, and another 
of those that diminish it, the case is quite simple. 
But there are many cases of local disease which require 
more skillful mental engineering than any mortal pos- 
sesses, and yet such diseases are sometimes alleviated, 
and perhaps cured, by the mysterious power of the 
imagination when excited by the charlatanism of an 
ignorant quack. 

This theory of the emotions enables us to under- 
stand how anxiety of mind produces diseases of the 
vital organs, especially in persons who are constitu- 
tionally predisposed to such diseases. From this point 
of view we can also perceive how a person may be har- 
rassed to death; or fall into a decline, from disap- 
pointed love ;and how the secretions of a cow's milk may 
become unhealthy, if she has been chased and worried 
by dogs. Prof. E. N. Horsford, of Cambridge, Mass., 
in a very interesting lecture given at Chicago, during 
the meeting of the American Association for the 
Advancement of Science in that city, stated that when 
beef cattle were conveyed in railroad cars, under cir- 
cumstances calculated to excite fear and anxiety, their 
meat was not as good as that of animals that had not 
been subjected to such annoyances. 

A gentleman who has had a good deal of experience 
in fishing, assures me that the fishes that are killed as 
soon as caught, are much firmer and better flavored 
than those that are allowed to suifer long and die 
gradually. 



HEAD AND HEART UNBALANCED. 295 

* 
MANIFESTATIONS OF GREAT STRENGTH AND INSENSIBILITY. 

The manifestations of wonderful strength by Mes- 
merized persons, and also by the insane, have never 
been explained upon any reasonable hypothesis; but 
emotional prelimination evidently affords the long 
desired clue to this mystery. A person who, in the 
the normal state, could not lift a hundred pounds, 
when in a Mesmeric state has been known to raise a 
chair with a man in it who weighed nearly three hun- 
dred pounds, without appearing to make any extra- 
ordinary effort. Insane patients, who had normally 
less than common strength, could not be held without 
the united efforts of two or three stout men. 

This wonder does not entirely cease, but it becomes 
much less, when we know that, in addition to ordinary 
volition, the brain has, through separate and distinct 
nerves, the power of turning all the energies of the 
heart and arteries upon one set of muscles. The 
patient only wills the result, and the diseased emo- 
tional brain does the rest. Similar reasoning applies 
to the faculty- which the Mesmerized subject often 
manifests, of becoming insensible to the pain of surgi- 
cal operations. The brain has the preliminating 
power of checking the arterial circulation in the nerves 
that supply the parts wounded. The subject thinks of 
the result, and nature does the rest. These phenomena 
manifested by the insane, the hysterical and the Mes- 
merized, differ from those of ordinary healthful per- 
sons, not so much in kind as in degree. 

MIND READING. 

The attention of the public has lately been aroused 



296 MYSTERIES OF HEAD AND HEART. 

by an apparently wonderful phenomenon denominated 
mind reading. The principal performer, who how- 
ever has many imitators, is a young gentleman named 
Brown. His mode of proceeding is as follows: A 
person in a company goes out of the room, while 
Brown is blindfolded, and hides an article, no one but 
himself knows what or where. He then returns to the 
room and gives his hand to Brown, who places it 
against his — Brown's — forehead, and immediately 
begins to move about, but at length proceeds to the 
right place and discovers the hidden article. In some 
cases he fails, but in a large majority of instances he 
succeeds. He declares that he can give no explana- 
tion of his peculiar faculty; he, however, states that a 
bright light seems to emanate from his forehead that 
guides him on his way. One of the conditions upon 
which he insists, and without which he declares that 
success cannot be expected, is that the person whose 
hand he holds, and whom we will denominate his 
guide, must keep the hiding place and the thing hid- 
den continually in his mind. 

Two theories have been proposed to account for these 
"mind reading" performances: one is, that the guide, 
by fixing his mind intently on the hiding place, uncon- 
sciously exerts upon his hand a slight degree of imper- 
ceptible volition, which the mind reader perceives, and 
by which he is guided to the place; and this is the rea- 
son why the experiment fails when thoughtless or 
unfairly skeptical persons act as guides. This explana- 
tion is perfectly physiological, and, if true, it would 
seem to be sufficient. Dr. G. M. Beard, a highly 
respectable physician of New York, declares that, after 
carefully and repeatedly trying the experiment with 



HEAD AND HEAET UNBALANCED. 297 

* 
Brown, he had no doubt that the explanation just given 
is essentially the true one. But, in justice to Mr. 
Brown, it must be stated that hundreds of persons, of 
all professions and grades of intelligence, who have 
had the same opportunities of investigation that Dr. 
Beard has, regard his theory as untenable, and as more 
incredible than the phenomena which it professes to 
explain. They declare that the promptness, rapidity 
and confidence with which Brown moves, when his 
guides act fairly, excludes all possibilty of such uncon- 
scious guidance as Dr. Beard suggests. 

I never saw Brown perform ; but a few evenings ago 
I was invited to the house of a friend, a well known 
citizen of Chicago, to witness some experiments in 
mind reading. I very gladly accepted the invitation, 
but with a mental reservation of unbelief. When the 
company had assembled, the gentleman sent his 
daughter into another room, where she blindfolded 
herself and remained in waiting. The gentleman took 
a paper weight, about half as large as his hand, and in 
the presence of the company placed it in a small 
drawer of a library table, at the same time stating that 
he would will his daughter to find the weight. The 
young lady was then led blindfolded into the room and 
the gentleman placed three fingers of his right hand 
upon her left shoulder. See illustration. She at once 
moved quickly around the room, taking the precise 
course that had been previously indicated to the com- 
pany, and concluded by laying her hand upon the 
drawer, opening it, and taking out the paper weight. 
Other experiments were performed, with unimportant 
variations of detail, and with perfect success. 

At the request of the company, the same young lady 



298 MYSTEEIES OF HEAD AND HEAKT. 

was again sent from the room and blindfolded as on 
previous occasions. The gentleman requested the com- 
pany to suggest anything they desired the subject 
should be willed to do, thus removing any possibility of 
a secret agreement to deceive, between the parties. 
It was suggested that the young lady should be brought 
into the room and placed in a position with her face 
toward the north; that the gentleman should then 
place his fingers upon her shoulder, as before; that 
she should turn immediately to the right, facing the 
south, and proceed to a certain figure in the parlor 
carpet ; then turning to the west, she was to approach 
a sofa in a remote corner of the room, from which she 
should remove a small tidy, which she should take to 
the opposite side of the room and place upon the 
head of a certain young gentleman in the company; 
she was then to proceed to the extreme end of the par- 
lor, and take a coin from the right vest-pocket of 
a gentleman, and return to the opposite side of the 
room, and place the coin in the left vest-pocket of 
another gentleman named; she was then to remove 
the tidy from the head of the gentleman upon whom 
it had been placed, and return it to the tete-a-tete where 
she originally found it. 

I must confess to no little surprise when I saw the 
young lady perform, with the most perfect .precision, 
every minute detail, as above described, and with the 
most surprising alacrity; in fact, so quick were her 
motions that it was with the greatest difficulty that 
the gentleman could keep pace with the young lady's 
movements. 

When I was called upon for an explanation of the 
phenomenon which I had just witnessed, I suggested 



HEAD AJSTD HEAET UNBALANCED. 299 

* 

Dr. Beard's theory. This was earnestly repudiated, 
and after some pleasant discussion, it was proposed 
for me to he blindfolded in place of the young lady. I 
consented, and very conscientiously rendered myself 
as passive as possible. Immediately upon being 
brought into the room, and placed under the gentle- 
man's influence, I walked along without the slightest 
idea where I was going, but putting out my hand, like 
a blind man, to prevent hitting against the furniture, 
or hurting myself, until at length I felt my hand lying 
upon the paper weight which had been hidden in 
another drawer, and heard the merry shouts of the 
whole company. Thinking that it might be a mere 
accident, I repeated the experiment successfully again 
and again; and I can truly affirm, that if my friend's 
Angers on my shoulder communicated any pressure 
by which I might guess in what direction to move, I 
did not perceive it; I did not see any such light as 
Brown describes, but I experienced a slight dizziness. 
My friend afterwards declared, and I believe with per- 
fect truth, that he did not intentionally indicate by 
the pressure of his fingers which way I was to move. 
He may have done so unconsciously, but even if he 
did, it is scarcely conceivable that I should receive the 
direction in that manner unconsciously, unless, indeed, 
my conforming socials partially entranced me, which 
is very unlikely. 

The other theory of mind reading, is that it is a 
species of sympathetic clairvoyance, or imperfect mag- 
netic communication of impressions from one brain 
to another. Thirty years ago all the Mesmerisers 
believed in clairvoyance, but at the present time the 
belief is mostly confined to spiritists, and the self- 



300 MYSTEEIES OP HEAD AND HEAET. 

styled and interested magnetic doctors. Carefully 
conducted experiments, during the last fifteen years, 
have led me to doubt the possibility of clairvoyance, 
and to look upon all persons who pretend to the art as 
impostors; perhaps, however, it would be more just 
and philosophical to suspend judgment upon the 
subject for the present, and give mind-reading a more 
thorough investigation before we pronounce a final 
sentence. 

In a conversation with a distinguished medical jour- 
nalist, a few days ago, he suggested a modification of 
the theory of clairvoyance in its application to mind- 
reading. His idea is, that when two persons bring 
their limbs into contact, the nervous system of one 
being active and positive, while that of the other is 
passive, the brain of the latter may unconsciously 
receive slight mental impressions from that of the 
former. This hypothesis has at least the recommend- 
ation of being within the possibilities of physiology. 
When I was a boy, I recollect very well the excite- 
ment produced in Springfield, Mass., by the first case 
of clairvoyance that ever attracted public attention in 
America. A girl named Jane Rider became a som- 
nambulist, and when carefully tested by such persons 
as the Hon. W. B. Calhoun, the Eev. W. B. O. Pea- 
body, and nearly all the physicians in the county, she 
satisfied them that she could read a closed book, and 
do various other things that to ordinary persons 
seemed impossible. Dr. Belden, who was a careful 
scientific physician, and who had special charge of the 
case, gave a public lecture, and also published a small 
book upon the subject, in which he attempted to 
account for the phenomena by the abnormal exaltation 



HEAD AND HEART UNBALANCED. 301 

of the nerves of sensation produced by disease. He 
made no attempt to deny or evade the fact that she 
actually possessed the marvelous perceptive powers 
ascribed to her, though he assented to it with great 
reluctance. Dr. Belden's theory is in some degree 
sustained by the performances of dogs in following, 
unerringly, the footsteps of their masters, over ground 
where scores of people have since passed; by the fact 
that sharks are said to follow a vessel for several days 
if a sick person is on board; and the fact that some 
fishes possess the power of communicating, (and prob- 
ably of also receiving,) electric currents through a 
large body of water. Possibly Brown, and some other 
persons, may possess a peculiar gift of susceptibility 
in their particular way, analogous in some respects to 
that of blind Tom for music, or Zerah Colburn for 
arithmetic. Who would believe, if we did not know 
it to be true, that blind people can read as readily 
and rapidly as they do, by feeling of the raised letters 
on their blocks'; or that telegraphers could interpret so 
easily the sounds made upon their instruments? I 
have heard of a blind man who could tell the color of 
the hair of a person, or of a certain kind of goods, by 
feeling of them. 

That people betray the state of their minds uncon- 
sciously by slight motions, has been often demon- 
strated. The power of the so-called divining rod, by 
means of which some persons pretend to find hidden 
springs or minerals, depends upon the fact that the 
holder of the rod unconsciously turns it in accordance 
with his own mind. When a person fixes his mind 
upon a result which he knows that he may accomplish 
bv volition, but does not intend to, he really exerts a 



302 MYSTERIES OF HEAD AND HEART. 

slight degree of imperceptible volition, which tends 
to produce the result. Persons who are naturally 
susceptible to the Mesmeric influence, are peculiarly 
liable to exert imperceptible volition; it may be said 
that their volition "leaks out," or "runs over," and 
escapes imperceptibly, and produces unconscious 
movements. It should be considered that when we 
do anything voluntarily, we only will the results; all 
the bodily organs conspire and move in the manner 
required, without our attention or thought. In mind- 
reading, we are required to fix the mind intently on 
the desired results, while in contact with the mind- 
reader, and. there are certainly many persons who can- 
not do this without betraying what is in their 
thoughts. Every one who is Mesmerically suscepti- 
ble, will manifest imperceptible volition much more 
decidedly than those who are not so. If both parties, 
the mind-reader and the one whose mind is supposed 
to be read, are susceptible, the experiment will be 
certain of success; but if neither are susceptible in 
the slightest degree, possibly the experiment will, in 
every such instance, be a failure. In making these 
remarks, I may be wrong in assuming that there is no 
truth whatever in clairvoyance or magnetic communi- 
cation; I can only say that I have been unable to find 
the requisite evidence of its reality, though I have 
sought diligently for it during several years. The 
mind-reading experiments just described approach 
nearer to it than any other that I have witnessed. 

EMOTIONAL INSANITY. 

Phrenology may be made useful in determining 
whether a person is insane or not, in those cases in 



HEAD AND HEART UNBALANCED. 303 

which the form of tne head indicates a character the 
reverse of that exhibited by the patient. In Wheel- 
ing, Virginia, I was once requested by the county 
judge to examine a young married woman who had 
killed her child. The question was whether or not 
she was insane. Her head was one of the most beauti- 
ful I ever saw, and of course it furnished some evi- 
dence of her insanity, by showing that the crime of 
child-murder, which is always unnatural, was partic- 
ularly so in her case. I have known many people 
who were not supposed to be insane, but whose con- 
duct could not be explained phrenologically, except 
on the supposition that they were partially deranged. 
Insanity is so shocking that people are generally 
unwilling to admit that a friend is insane as long as 
they can avoid it. They require the most positive 
proofs, and suggest all kinds of excuses and explana- 
tions, before they will pronounce the unpleasant ver- 
dict. Besides, the evidence is of such a metaphysical 
and equivocal character, that it is often impossible to 
distinguish between caprice and eccentricity on the 
one hand and real insanity on the other. The evi- 
dence consists of peculiar acts or speeches, which, in 
most cases, differ from mere eccentricity in degree 
rather than in kind. 

Some people, when a little unwell, will manifest ill- 
humor or melancholy. If the health is soon restored 
the mind resumes its wonted cheerfulness; if not, the 
patient, in some instances, becomes permanently 
insane. When this happens we do not hesitate to 
trace the disease back to the time when the first symp- 
toms were manifested, and declare that the patient 
was really insane at that time. Had he recovered 



304 MYSTERIES OF HEAD A1STD HEAET. 

before the insanity became manifest beyond doubt, 
we should not have called it insanity. 

When a person suffers from a slight cold, we do not 
call it an inflammation of the lungs, provided it is 
soon removed; but if it continues until it produces 
death, we do not hesitate to say that the cold was a 
slight degree of the same disease which terminated 
fatally. I have met hundreds of people supposed to 
be sane, whose conduct was so peculiar that there 
seemed to be no theory by which it could be explained 
except that of cerebral disease. I have seen persons 
who were noted for suavity and patience under very 
annoying circumstances, become suddenly irritated, 
and use the. most offensive language without any 
adequate cause that could be perceived. When after- 
M^ards the disease of their brains became known, the 
explanation of their former conduct was obvious. 

These remarks apply with considerable force to two 
distinguished public men lately deceased — the Hon. 
Horace Greeley and Prof. Louis Agassiz. The marked 
contrast between the latest insane manifestations of 
those two patients is highly illustrative of the distinc- 
tion between the governing and the conforming 
propensities and of their effects when diseased. In 
Greeley the exalting or sthenic emotions were excited, 
and manifested themselves by impelling him to furious 
conduct; in the brain of Agassiz, on the contrary, it 
was the conforming group that were dominant, and 
caused him to kneel in the midst of his astonished 
and afflicted pupils and pray. The careful and scien- 
tific examination of the brain of Agassiz, after his 
death, revealed the most positive evidence that it had 
been diseased for many years; and I have no doubt 



HEAD AND «ffEAKT UNBALANCED. 305 

that a similar examination of the brain of Greeley 
would have afforded evidence of the same fact. 

In the course of this treatise I have illustrated, at 
considerable length, the effects of the depressing pro- 
pensities both upon the body and the mind. They 
are represented as producing coldness, tremulousness, 
weakness, paleness, sleepiness and dreaming. The 
dreams are such as those propensities would naturally 
produce; generally mild, gentle, spiritual and poetical, 
except in cases of tremens, when they doubtless pro- 
ceed from fear and marvelousness combined; and 
except also in cases of hysteria, when Secretiveness 
often predominates and prompts to the most absurd 
deceptions. In Mesmerism the dreams assume any 
character that the operator chooses to suggest. 

I have hitherto barely alluded to the effects pro- 
duced upon body and mind by an extreme and abnor- 
mal excitement of the exalting or sthenic propen- 
sities, and their attendant emotions, such as pride, 
anger, sexual love and hope. 

The question will be likely to arise in the mind of 
the reader, if the abnormal excitement of the depress- 
ing propensities produces such remarkable effects as 
have been described in these pages, why do not the 
abnormal excitements of the exalting or sthenic 
propensities produce equally strange manifestations? 
The answer is that in reality they do so, and these 
extreme effects are generally denominated insanities. 
Besides, when the depressing propensities prevail, they 
check the circulation in the brain, and thus produce 
a species of partial sleep, some of the mental faculties 
being asleep and others awake and dreaming; but 
when the exalting propensities prevail, the cerebral 



306 MYSTERIES OF HEAD AND HEART. 

circulation is increased, and therefore the whole brain 
and all its faculties are excited; the conduct is pos- 
itive, egotistical, energetic, aggressive, and even 
furious. The first effects of alcoholic liquors are 
exalting, and are manifested in eloquence, vivacity, 
singing, boasting, egotism, quarrelling — the subject 
is hopeful, cheerful, rich, and confident of success — 
in a word, he is in a condition of mind just the 
reverse of that of one entranced. When the effects 
of the alcohol have passed away, and the reaction fol- 
lows, the depressing propensities predominate — Rev- 
erence, Credenciveness, Cautiousness and Secretive- 
ness — the subject is now afflicted with horrid dreams 
and visions; he is suspicious, fearful, superstitious, 
remorseful. When a person is in a Mesmeric state or 
trance, the only depressing propensities that are 
excited are the conforming socials, but in tremens the 
depressing propensities of the Ij>seal or self-relative 
class are excited also, namely, Cautiousness and Secre- 
tiveness. 

MODEKN SPIKITISM. 

The philosophical student of human nature, when 
called upon to explain the phenomena of modern 
spiritism, naturally calls to mind the analogous in- 
stances of remarkable superstitions and impositions 
that are recorded in history — Mohammedanism, Mor- 
monism, Shakerism, the deceptions practiced by monks 
in the middle ages, and by the priests and pretended 
virgins in the ancient Grecian temples. These all 
naturally rise in his mind and prompt him to scru- 
tinize the phenomena with an expectation of detecting 
the evidence that " history is merely repeating itself," 



HEAD AND HEART UNBALANCED. 307 

* 

and that the key to the whole mystery is that a few 
shrewd knaves have imposed upon a large number of 
dupes. Assuming this to be true, as I have no doubt 
that in some degree at least it is, he would also sup- 
pose that the dupes were in all cases men and women 
of inferior minds, or that they had enjoyed less than 
the average share of educational advantages. This, 
however, is far from being the case. 

As a public lecturer, and an opponent of modern 
spiritism from its very birth, I have had occasion to 
meet and converse with its believers in all parts of the 
Union, and I have found them to be persons of much 
more than ordinary intelligence. Indeed, I do not 
recollect a single instance of a very ignorant or uned- 
ucated man who was a professed spiritist. I have just 
been looking over a book entitled U A Defence of 
Modern Spiritualism," by Alfred Wallace, F. E. S., 
one of the most scientific men of the age, who divides 
with Darwin the honor of having revolutionized — or 
rather evolutionized — natural history. 

The following passage from his book gives an ac- 
count that is probably not much exaggerated: 

No amount of education, of legal, medical or scientific train- 
ing, was proof against the overwhelming force of the facts, 
whenever these facts were systematically and perseveringly in- 
quired into. The number of Spiritualists in the Union is, 
according to those who have the best means of judging, from 
eight to eleven millions. This is the estimate of Judge Edmonds, 
who has had extensive correspondence on the subject with every 
part of the United States. The Hon. R. D. Owen, who has also 
had great opportunities of knowing the facts, considers it to be 
approximately correct ; and it is affirmed by the editors of the 
"Year-Book of Spiritualism" for 1871. These numbers have 
been held to be absurdly exaggerated by persons having less 
information, especially by strangers who have made superficial 



308 MYSTERIES OF HEAD AND HEAET. 

inquiries in America ; but it must be remembered that the Spirit- 
ualists are to a very limited extent an organized body, and that 
the mass of them make no public profession of their belief, but 
still remain members of some denominational church — circum- 
stances that would greatly deceive an outsider. Nevertheless, 
the organization is of considerable extent. There were in Amer- 
ica, in 1870, 20 State Associations and 105 Societies of Spiritual- 
ists, 207 lecturers, and about the same number of public mediums. 
In other parts of the world the movement has progressed more 
or less rapidly. Several of the more celebrated American medi- 
ums have visited this country, and not only made converts in all 
classes of society, but led to the formation of private circles and 
the discovery of mediumistic power in hundreds of families. 
There is scarcely a city or a considerable town in Continental 
Europe at the present moment where Spiritualists are not reck- 
oned by hundreds, if not by thousands. There are said, on good 
authority, to be fifty thousand avowed Spiritualists in Paris and 
ten thousand in Lyons ; and the numbers in England may be 
roughly estimated by the fact that there are four exclusively 
spiritual periodicals, one of which has a circulation of five 
thousand weekly. 

The question naturally arises — Why should so 
many intelligent persons believe in a doctrine which 
is so extremely absurd ? 1. We must take into consider- 
ation the fact that the early teaching of all Christians 
has been such as to prepare them to believe in sjDirit 
communication.* The Bible, especially the New Tes- 
tament, sanctions this doctrine, and the churches go 
still further. The Roman Catholic Church, from 
which all Protestant churches have been derived, has 
always taught that legions of good and of evil spirits 
are hovering about us continually and influencing our 

* There is not a single instance in the whole Bible of a deceased 
human being using the brain or mouth or hand of a living one 
as a medium of communication. This method is a modern in- 
vention. Does not this fact indicate that it is a mere invention ? 



HEAD AND HEART UNBALANCED. 309 

conduct. They believe in not only mental, but phys- 
ical manifestations. I heard Bishop Timon, in Buffalo, 
declare, before a large audience, that the picture of 
the Holy Virgin, in Washington, shed tears while more 
than a thousand people were present. They invoke a 
large number of saints to intercede for them, and to 
protect them from danger and from evil spirits. I 
met a Catholic clergyman lately, who assured me that 
he had exorcised an evil spirit that had taken posses- 
sion of a young man, a member of his church, who 
had been attending spiritual seances. The lad had 
become a medium, and the pious father sprinkled him 
with holy water, and commanded the spirit to leave 
him. The ceremony had to be repeated three times 
before the spirit was expelled. It will readily be per- 
ceived that it requires but little evidence to convince 
such persons of the reality of the modern spirit com- 
munications and manifestations. None of the Prot- 
estant churches deny the probability that spirits 
influence human conduct. 

The witchcraft mania that prevailed throughout 
Christendom during the last century, was founded 
upon the teachings of the churches. The historian 
Barrington is quoted by Judge Edmonds as asserting 
that thirty thousand people were publicly executed in 
England alone, during one hundred and fifty years, 
for witchcraft. 

What was that witchcraft? It was a compound of 
Mesmerism (or rather emotionalism) and superstition. 
No sensible people now believe that spirits had any 
agency in producing the manifestations. The phe- 
nomena of trance explained by the church was witch- 



310 MYSTERIES OF HEAD AND HEART. 

craft; explained by science, it is emotionalism; ex- 
plained by Prof. Wallace and Mr. Owen, it is spiritism. 

The believers in witchcraft conld boast of quite as 
respectable names as the modern spiritists. Lord 
Chief Justice Hale was one of the most learned, just 
and pious, magistrates that ever England produced, 
yet he sat on the bench and condemned scores of old 
women to be burned to death for witchcraft. King 
James the 1st, the same monarch who ordered the 
present translation of the English Bible, published a 
treatise on witchcraft, in which he endorsed its absurd- 
ities, and threatened with the severest possible punish- 
ments all who should be found guilty of the offense. 
None of the churches have ever opposed the belief, 
and none of the laws against it have ever been re- 
pealed, though the courts have refused to execute 
them. I remember well that in New England, fifty 
years ago, the belief in witchcraft was universal. 'No 
one doubted it except those who doubted the Bible 
itself. Even now the belief in ghosts, omens and 
warnings is common among religious people. Our 
children are taught in the nursery to believe in fairies, 
dragons and giants. The groups that gather round 
the hearths of our country homes on winter evenings, 
are entertained with ghost stories oftener than any 
other. 

Another fact that deserves consideration is, that 
nearly all those who pretend to be skeptical concern- 
ing the Bible, still retain, though perhaps uncon- 
sciously, their superstitious belief in ghosts and myths. 
There are few of them who can go through a grave- 
yard at night without listening, and looking around, 
and starting at every sight and sound, half expecting 



HEAD AND HEAET UNBALANCED. 311 

to see a gliost glide near them. When we are called 
upon to account for the rapid spread of the belief in 
modern spiritism, this fact, that all Christendom is 
educated to believe in the most marvellous part of it, 
must not be overlooked. If we ask almost any sincere 
Christian the question, "Do you believer that the 
spirits of the departed ever visit this earth?" he may 
hesitate, but the chances are that he will finally sug- 
gest that the Bible warrants an answer in the affirma- 
tive. He will doubtless protest, however, that he does 
not believe in modern spiritism. If you question him 
closely, you will find that his principal objection will 
be that the communications received are not in accord- 
ance with his religious views. 

There is probably no religious sect that would 
oppose spiritism, if its manifestations and communi- 
cations were confirmatory of their own peculiar teach- 
ings. The Roman and Greek churches have had 
thousands of miraculous manifestations of saints and 
devils, which, instead of repudiating, they solemnly 
affirm to be true. Indeed, the Romanists do not deny 

Note. — As ail evidence of the tendency of the spiritists to 
extreme credulity, it may be observed by any one who will look 
over the books of their ablest authors, that they gather up almost 
all the marvellous stories that have any relation to their theme, 
many of which have been repudiated and discarded by all sensi- 
ble writers, and publish them as cumulative evidences of spirit- 
ism. Men who have been notoriously skeptical in regard to the 
Christian religion, since they have become spiritists, believe that 
all the Roman Catholic legends concerning miracles and saints, 
had a basis in reality. They reject everything in regard to relig- 
ion, excepting its most incredible portions. According to their 
view, witchcraft, instead of being a delusion, consisted of reali- 
ties that were not understood. The spirits, it seems, had power 
enough to do infinite mischief, but not enough to do any good. 



312 MYSTERIES OF HEAD AND HEART. 

the phenomena of modern spiritism; on the contrary, 
they admit their genuineness, but declare they proceed 
from devils, and prohibit their converts from having 
anything to do with them. It is clear, then, that 
modern spiritists are not under the necessity of prov- 
ing that spirits exists, visit the earth, and manifest 
themselves in various ways. The people already believe 
it ; the highest church authorities teach it, and the Bible 
is supposed to sanction it. Prof. Wallace, Mr. Peebles, 
and Mr. Owen, in boasting of the great number of 
distinguished characters who believe in spiritism, may 
with perfect truth add the whole Roman Catholic 
church, and nine-tenths of all other Christian churches. 
The only question with Christians is concerning the 
character of the spirits that communicate. 

From this view of the subject, it appears that the 
so-called converts to spiritism were, in most cases, 
believers from their youth up. They are converted 
and confirmed in what they believed before. When 
Prof. Wallace and Judge Edmonds estimate the 
believers at fifteen millions, they fall far short of the 
reality. Its believers may be reckoned by hundreds 
of millions; indeed, there are probably few doubters 
in the civilized world. 

ANTI-CHRISTIAN SPIEITISTS. 

From the foregoing, it is evidently necessary to dis- 
tinguish between Christian and anti-Christian spirit- 
ists. The modern spiritists, as a sect, probably do not 
number one million, and perhaps not half a million; 
but they are far from being contemptible on that 
account, for a majority of them are active, proselyting, 
enthusiastic, and withal, intelligent people, full of 



HEAD AND HEAKT UNBALANCED, 313 

♦ 

moral courage, enterprise and shrewdness. Why are 
they not Christians? Andrew Jackson Davis was the 
real founder of the sect, and he was nominally a Uni- 
versalist, and so also were all, or nearly all, of the first 
dozen of his converts and associates. Gibson Smith, 
Partridge, Newton, Brittan and Fishbough, were, I 
believe, all Universalist clergymen, and accordingly 
the first communications were opposed to evangelical 
orthodoxy. The consequence was that many members 
of the liberal Christian denominations favored them, 
and the orthodox opposed them. But it was soon 
ascertained that the spiritists had an element which 
was necessarily fatal to any Christian church. They 
professed to receive communications directly from 
Christ and the apostles, which contradicted the Bible. 
At one of the seances they pretended that Christ him- 
self came and tipped the table, so as to make it keep 
time to the tune of Yankee Doodle. The Universalists 
are strict believers of the Bible, and they, as well as 
all other Christian denominations, were obliged to dis- 
band or repudiate the spiritists. The Swedenborgians, 
at first, sympathized with Davis, and doubtless sup- 
posed that he and his friends would prove valuable 
auxiliaries, but they were soon undeceived. They 
believe every word of the Bible, and regard Christ as 
very God. I have said that the founders of spiritism 
were nominally Universalists, but there is abundant 
evidence that they were really unbelievers. The theo- 
logical scheme which they adopted, and to which they 
still, as a sect, adhere, may be denominated Sweden- 
borgianism with the Bible left out. One important 
consequence of their anti-Christian doctrines is, that 
they have the opposition of all Christian sects, and a 



314 MYSTERIES OF HEAD AKD HEAET. 

great deal of the sympathy of skeptics. If you attend 
their meetings, you will generally find there the lead- 
ing irreligious men and women of the vicinity, whether 
they are spiritists or not, and you will hear discourses 
that abound with severe criticism of what they style 
the " popular theology." Another circumstance that 
must be taken into consideration and explained is, that 
many of the leading disbelievers in the Bible have 
become spiritists. The reason of this, after a little 
reflection, is obvious. They hunger and thirst after 
religion of some kind, and having abandoned that of 
their fathers', they are like the prodigal son, left out 
in the cold, destitute and starving. Under these cir- 
cumstances a new religion is presented, one that is 
much better suited to their ideas of freedom from 
restraint than the old one; the natural desire to live 
another life, and the desire to meet once more those 
that have gone before them, is powerful ; and when to 
this is added the evidence which the mediums furnish 
of actual communications from their departed friends, 
their skepticism gives way before the strong natural 
feelings that are aroused within them. 

EVIDENCE. 

There are certain rules of evidence by which all 
scientific and all legal minds are guided in the inves- 
tigation of doubtful and difficult matters. These 
rules should be constantly borne in mind when con- 
sidering the nature of the evidence in favor of spir- 
itism. 

1. One rule is that those who assert anything new 
or extraordinary must prove it; and they have no 
right to demand of skeptics to prove the contrary. 



HEAD AND HEAET UNBALANCED. 315 

# 

2. Another rule is that they must prove it by the 
best evidence that the case admits of. If the thing in 
dispute can be inspected, it must be submitted to 
inspection on all sides, and by every light that can be 
brought to bear upon it. If it has a history, that 
must be fairly stated and proved, and the credibility 
of the witnesses thoroughly tested by cross-examina- 
tions, and by inquiries into their capabilities and their 
previous habits and characters. 

3. If the question can be settled by an experiment, 
that must be tried and repeated under every variety 
of circumstances, and with every modification that 
will be likely to exclude error and reveal the truth. 
If the thing examined is a machine that produces a 
mysterious effect, the machine should be taken apart 
and tested in every way calculated to detect decep- 
tion. I once saw a machine, that it was pretended 
was endowed with perpetual motion, examined in this 
manner, and a secret spring discovered. I also saw a 
complicated contrivance by which it was pretended 
that illuminating gas could be made from pure water; 
and in the midst of a shaft a reservoir of petroleum 
was found concealed. Smugglers, spies, jugglers and 
detectives are acquainted with a hundred ways in 
which ordinary investigators can be' deceived. A 
gentleman of great experience declared to me, a few 
days ago, that not one person in a thousand possesses 
the proper qualifications for the investigation of the 
pretended spiritual phenomena, although very few 
doubt their capability. 

4. The spiritists frequently challenge skeptics to 
debate before public audiences the question whether 
spiritism is true or false; but on such occasions the 



316 MYSTERIES OF HEAD AND HEART. 

only evidence offered is the mere ipse dixit of the 
spiritists. The skeptic is solemnly called upon to 
disprove their bold assertions. The most that the 
skeptic can do on such occasions is to insist upon the 
production of the proper evidence, and in its absence 
demand a popular verdict in his favor. The spiritists 
will relate wonderful things that they have witnessed, 
and declare that they would not have believed if they 
had not seen them, and yet they expect others to 
believe without seeing them. 

Let us now examine the evidence upon which mod- 
ern spiritism is founded. 

1. Prof. Wallace assumes that those who have exam- 
ined and reported against spiritism would, in all cases, 
have made a different report if they had examined 
longer. In reply to this assumption I will state that 
modern spiritism grew out of my lectures in Pough- 
keepsie, in 1843; I was the first to report adversely 
to the pretensions of the Fox girls; and have con- 
tinued to investigate the subject ever since, and yet 
have failed to find a single iota of proper evidence in 
its favor; on the contrary, there is an overwhelmning 
mass of evidence against it. I have not the slightest 
doubt that all the so-called spirit phenomena have 
been produced by Mesmerism (emotionalism), or by 
jugglery, and I am not alone in this opinion; scores 
can be produced who saw all the manifestations of the 
Fox girls in their own home in Hydesville, and who 
agree with me in regarding them as false. 

Prof. Wallace seems to think that because Crookes 
and Yarley, of London, were convinced, therefore 
spiritism must be true. Might we not, with much 
more reason, say that the fact that out of the hundreds 



HEAD AND HEART UNBALANCED. 317 

of scientists in London so few were convinced, with 
the same evidence before them, proves that it is false? 
Were Faraday and Carpenter, Huxley and Tyndall less 
capable of forming a correct judgment than Crookes 
and Yarley? If the evidence were so positive and 
perfect as Prof. Wallace regards it, surely there should 
be no skeptics among such capable, truth-seeking men. 
One would think that the very ■ fact that there were 
such wide differences among competent judges, ought 
at least to have induced Prof. Wallace to regard the 
question as a doubtful one. But Prof. Wallace says 
that Carpenter, and other scientific opponents, did not 
investigate long enough — hardly attended five seances 
while the believers attended fifty, and some were sev- 
eral years engaged in constant investigation before 
they were convinced. Does not Prof. Wallace perceive 
that he is proving too much? If the evidence is so 
clear, positive and abundant, why does it require such 
a long time and such a repetition of seances? Why 
is- it necessary to winnow out such an immense amount 
of chaff to obtain a single grain of truth? 

In presenting his " Defense of Spiritualism " before 
the public, Prof. Wallace, in order to make out a clear 
case, represents the Fox girls as having been tested 
and examined by committees and skeptics, and as in 
every instance coming out of the ordeal triumphantly. 
His statements are all what the lawyers call exparte, 
or one-sided. It is no more than just to presume that 
he never heard the following adverse evidence: 

THE FOX GIRLS. 

In the very small village of Hydesville, in Wayne 
county, N". Y., about five miles from Palmyra, lived an 



318 MYSTERIES OF HEAD AKD HEART. 

unpretending family, the principal of which was Mrs. 
Fox, the mother of three daughters, the eldest of 
which, Mrs. Fish, was a young widow, and resided in 
Rochester, while the two younger daughters resided 
with their mother. 

One evening, as the story goes, the attention of the 
old lady was attracted to an unusual knocking near 
the feet of one of the girls, and, supposing, of course, 
that the girl herself made the raps, requested her to 
stop them; but the girl assured her mother, most 
solemnly, that she did not make the noises, and was 
utterly ignorant of the cause of them. It was next 
observed that the raps seemed to reply to the language 
of the old lady. Questions were then asked, and a 
certain specified number of raps requested in reply. 
Immediately the number of raps mentioned were 
given, just as if some intelligent person was rapping. 
The whole village was soon in commotion, and two 
parties were formed, one of which, judging by the 
past, contended that the whole thing was a trick of the 
girls to gain notoriety; while the other party inclined 
to the opinion that the noises were made by super- 
natural beings, who had just discovered this method 
of communicating with mortals. One of the girls 
soon after made a visit to her sister in Rochester, and 
the knockings not only followed her, but soon after 
manifested themselves near or through the sister, 
Mrs. Fish. Accounts of these wonderful communi- 
cations found their way into the public prints, and 
were discussed all over the country, under the name 
of the "Rochester Tappings:'" thus the fame of the 
Fox Girls soon began to rival that of the Pough- 
keepsie seer. 



HEAD AND HEART UNBALANCED. 319 

# 

The Foxes, evidently, it would appear, did not set 

out with any settled plan of operations. They had no 
theological system to build up, nor any philosophical 
theories to maintain or promulgate. They were simple 
country girls, who woke up suddenly one morning, 
and found themselves famous. They began, in girlish 
sport, to make raps upon the floor and the furniture 
of their rural home, at the same time that they 
roguishly denied all knowledge of the causes of the 
raps which they made. None were more astonished 
than they, at the result; though the cause of their 
astonishment was very different from that of their 
dupes. They must have been perfectly amazed at the 
avidity with which their rude marvels were swal- 
lowed, and the hungry eagerness with which more 
were demanded. 

"When, however, they found that they were attract- 
ing public attention, and were regarded as spiritual 
mediums, they were not ignorant of the best mode of 
proceeding to make the most of their pretended gifts. 

The following is Mrs. Fox's account, as published 
by Mr. Ch. W. Elliott: 

" 'T was in December, of the year 1847, that she moved from 
Rochester into this hired house. Very soon they were dis- 
turbed, after going to bed, by various noises, which, however, 
did not attract much attention, as they supposed them to be 
made by the rats, which do sometimes, of themselves, have 
strange doings. It is a pity, that the age and condition of the 
house are not stated in either account. They were, however, 
disturbed, and, indeed, kept awake some, until they began to 
suspect that mischievous persons might be playing tricks. 
Examination, however, did not show any such explanation, and 
they were obliged to content themselves with the rats, until, after 
a space of nearly four months, when, on the last day of March, 
year 1848, they determined to go to bed early, so as to get a good 



320 MYSTERIES OF HEAD AND HEART. 

night's rest, in spite of all noise ; but this was not permitted. 
The thought then struck Mrs. Fox whose bed was in the same 
room with that of her two daughters, Margaretta, aged fifteen, 
and Katy, aged twelve, that she would question the noise. 

" ' Who makes the noise ?' 

" ' Is it made by any person living ?' 

" ' Is it made by any one dead ?' Rap. 

" ' If by an injured spirit?' Rap. 

" ' If injured by her or her family ?' 

" ' If bj r various other names ?' 

" Getting no further reply, she arose, somewhat excited, and 
called her husband, and some of the neighbors, who were yet up. 

" The two girls, so Mrs. Fox states, were not apparently as 
much excited as she was, but entered, with some spirit, into the 
doings of the other spirit, one of them snapping her fingers, and 
asking the spirit to do as they did, which it did do. 

"One of the neighbors followed up the injured spirit, asking, 
when the injury was done? Five raps, indicating, as they sup- 
posed, five years. 

'" What name did the injury?' Rap, at the name mentioned 
of a man who lived there some five years before. 

" ' Is the body here, then, in the cellar?' A rap was heard, and 
they determined to dig, but somehow learned that they must 
delay it some four months, and, of course, did so. 

" Mrs. F. stated, that, upon digging at the time mentioned, her 
son, and two others, found some pieces of 'bone, but whether or 
not those of a man, does not seem to have been ascertained. The 
person accused by the spirit, she said, was much outraged, but 
took no very efficient steps to remove so questionable an accusa- 
tion. Mrs. Fox stated that she left the house, and lived with 
some friends, as the excitement for, or against them, was so con- 
siderable ; but, strange to say, the sounds followed her two girls, 
and, in the course of the summer, the alphabet was revealed to 
the son, when alone, in the wonderful house. 

" The son's wife, also, for a time, she stated, was a ' medium,' 
for such is the title now used, but has, somehow, lost the gift." 

I was informed, in Palmyra, that very few, if any, 
in that vicinity, believed in the pretensions of the 
Fox girls; even their relatives, who knew them the 



HEAD AND HEART UNBALANCED. 321 

most intimately, were the most ready to testify 
against them, as will appear from the following 
affidavit of Mrs. Culver. When Dr. Boynton gave a 
lecture against spiritualism in Palmyra, Mrs. Culver 
exposed, publicly, the manner of producing the raps, 
and performed, in the presence of the audience, pre- 
cisely as the Fox girls did. 

DEPOSITION OF MRS. NORMAN CULVER. 

"I am, by marriage, a connection of the Fox, girls; their 
brother married my husband's sister. The girls have been a 
great deal at my house, and, for about two years, I was a very 
sincere believer in the rappings ; but some things which I saw, 
when I was visiting the girls at Rochester, made me suspect that 
they were deceiving. I resolved to satisfy myself, in some way ; 
and, some time afterwards, I made a proposition to Catharine to 
assist her in producing the manifestations. I had a cousin visit- 
ing me from Michigan, who was going to consult the spirits, and 
I told Catharine that if they intended to go to Detroit, it would 
be a great thing for them to convince him ; I also told her, that, 
if I could do any thing to help her, I would do it cheerfully— 
that I would probably be able to answer all the questions he 
would ask, and I would do it if she would show me how to make 
the raps. She said, that, as Margaretta was absent, she wanted 
somebody to help her, and that, if I would become a medium, 
she would explain it all to me. She said that when my cousin 
consulted the spirits, I must sit next to her, and touch her arm 
when the right letter was called. I did so, and was able to 
answer nearly all the questions correctly, ^fter I had helped 
her in this way, a few times, she revealed to me the secret. The 
raps are produced with the toes. All the toes are used. After 
nearly a week's practice, with Catharine showing me how, I 
could produce them perfectly, myself. At first, it was very hard 
work to do it. Catharine told, me to warm my feet, or put them 
in warm water, and it would then be easier work to rap ; she 
said that she sometimes had to warm her feet three or four times 
in the course of an evening. I found that heating my feet did 
enable me to rap a great deal easier. I have sometimes pro- 



322 MYSTERIES OF HEAD AND HEART. 

duced a hundred and fifty raps in succession. I can rap with 
all the toes on both feet — it is most difficult to rap with the 
great toe. 

" Catharine told rne how to manage to answer the questions. 
She said it was generally easy enough to answer right, if the 
one who asked the questions called the alphabet. She said, the 
reason why they asked people to write down several names on 
paper, and then point to them, till the spirit rapped. at the right 
one, was to give them a chance to watch the countenance and 
motions of the person; and that, in that way, they could nearly 
always guess right. She also explained how they held down 
and moved the tables. (Mrs. Culver gave us some illustrations 
of the tricks.) She told me, that all I should have to do to make 
the raps heard on the table, would be to put my foot on the 
bottom of the table when I rapped, and then, when I wished to 
make the raps sound distinct on the wall, I must make them 
louder, and direct my own eyes earnestly to the spot where I 
wished them to be heard. She said, if I could put my foot 
against the bottom ot the door, the raps would be heard on the 
top of the door. Catharine told me, that, when the committee 
held their ankles, in Rochester, the Dutch servant-girl rapped 
with her knuckles, under the floor, from the cellar. The girl 
was instructed to rap whenever she heard their voices calling 
the spirits. Catharine also showed me how they made the 
sounds of sawing and planing boards. (The whole trick was 
explained to us.) When I was at Rochester last January, Mar- 
garetta told me that when people insisted on seeing her feet and 
toes, she could produce a few raps with her knee and ankle. 

" Elizabeth Fish, (Mrs. Fish's daughter,) who now lives with 
her father, was the first one who produced these raps. She acci- 
dentally discovered the way to make them, by playing with her 
toes against the foot-board, while in bed. Catharine told me 
that the reason why Elizabeth went away west to live with her 
father, was, because she was too conscientious to become a 
medium. The whole secret was revealed to me, with the under- 
standing, that I should practice as a medium, when the girls 
were away. Catharine said, that, whenever I practiced, I had 
better have my little girl at the table with me, and make folks 
believe that she was the medium, for she said that they would 
not suspect so young a child of anj r tricks. After I had obtained 
the whole secret, I plainly told Catharine that my only object 



HEAD AND HEAET UNBALANCED. 323 

was to find out how the tricks were done, and that I should 
never go any further in this imposition. She was very much 
frightened, and said she believed that I meant to tell of it, and 
expose them ; and if I did, she would swear it was a lie. She 
was so nervous and excited that I had to sleep with her that 
night, "When she was instructing me how to be a medium, she 
told me how frightened they used to get in New York, for fear 
somebody would detect them ; and gave me the whole history 
of all the tricks they played upon the people there. She said 
that once Margaretta spoke aloud, and the whole party believed 
it was a spirit. 

"Mrs. Norman Culver." 

" We hereby certify that Mrs. Culver is one of the most reputa- 
ble and intelligent ladies in the town of Arcadia. We were 
present when she made the disclosures contained in the above 
paper ; we had heard the same from her before, and we cheer- 
fully bear testimony, that there can not be the slightest doubt 
of the truth of the whole statement. 

"C. G. Pomerov, M. D. 

"Rev. D. S. Chase." 

Prof. Flint, Sen., of the Bellevue Medical College, 
one of the ablest medical authors in America, and 
Prof. Lee, of the Buffalo University, investigated the 
subject, and found a lady in Buffalo who could per- 
form precisely what the Fox girls did, and make raps 
by a peculiar movement of the bones of the knees.. 
The following extracts from Prof. Lee's letter gives 
the account of their experiences: 

" To the Editors of the Tribune: 

" Mrs. Fish and Miss Fox were requested to be seated on chairs, 
their limbs extended, and their heels resting on cushions. The 
reasons for placing them in this position were stated — viz., that 
we believed, in order that the raps should be heard, that the feet 
should have some solid support, serving as & fulcrum; else the 
contraction of the muscles of the leg would not throw the bone, 
(head of tibia,) out of place ; or if so, no sound would be heard, 
unless the concussion, or vibration, which would be thus pro- 



324 MYSTERIES OE HEAD AND HEART. 

ducecl, could be communicated to some sonorous, or vibrating 
body. While thus seated, more than fifty minutes elapsed, 
during which no 'raps' were heard, though the 'spirits' were 
urged, and called upon, by Mrs. F., to ' manifest ' themselves. A 
part of this time, Miss Fox was allowed to seat herself on the 
sofa — her limbs and feet resting on the cushions of the same. 
No sounds having been heard, it was suggested, that the ladies 
be allowed to take any position they pleased, and see if any 
'raps' were then heard. Accordingly, they seated themselves 
on the sofa, their feet resting on the floor, when, immediately, a 
loud succession of ' raps ' followed, and continued for several 
mirmtes. We then proposed to try another test ; so, seating our- 
selves before the ladies, we grasped each of their knees firmly, 
so as to prevent any lateral movement of the bones ; the ' raps ' 
immediately ceased, and were not heard while the knees were 
thus held, except near the close of the experiment, which con- 
tinued, once, forty minutes, when two slight sounds were heard, 
on slightly relaxing my grasp, while, at the same time, I dis- 
tinctly felt the heads of the bones grating on each other, and the 
muscles contracting, which, though a very positive kind of evi- 
dence to me, I am aware, is not so satisfactory to bystanders. 

"I should state, that our hands were removed several times 
from the knees, during the trial, and 'raps' were always heard, 
during the interval of removal. At the clese of the sitting, 
which continued till past eleven o'clock, Miss Fox was much 
affected, and shed many tears, which excited much sympathy on 
the part of some of the gentlemen present. I need not add that 
our position was triumphantly sustained, and that public opinion 
here, is, now, almost universally, on our side. 

*,* * * * * * * 

"You may, very naturally, ask, why has not this physiological 
phenomenon been known to physicians before? I answer, that 
it has, so far as the smaller joints are concerned. Every person, 
almost, can snap their finger-joints; many, also, as Mr. Burr, 
can snap their toe-joints, and some their ankles, producing a 
pretty loud ' rap,' when placed in contact with some sonorous 
body ; but the same phenomenon is very seldom met with in the 
larger joints, as the knees; and when it is, it has escaped par- 
ticular observation, and not been made known to physicians, as 
it neither requires, perhaps, nor admits, of medical aid. 

" But it may be said by some, that the above explanation is 






HEAD AND HEART UNBALANCED. 325 

♦ 

not altogether satisfactory, inasmuch as these ' rappings ' are 
heard in different parts of the room, at the same time; or, some- 
times, on the table, then the door, then the walls of the room, 
and at a distance from the 'rappers,' etc. After spending several 
hours a day, for three days, with Mrs. Fish and Miss F., during 
which the ' raps ' were invariably heard, whenever called for, 
without, as I recollect, a single exception, T found, that, in no 
one instance, did the sounds seem to proceed from the door, 
unless Miss F. was near enough to touch it with her heel ; nor 
did the sounds seem to proceed from the table, unless she was 
near enough to the leg of the table to touch it with her foot ; 
but, generally, they proceeded from the floor, apparently, in her 
vicinity, although the floor could be felt to vibrate, at the same 
distance from her, just as the whole table would vibrate, when 
she placed her foot against one of its legs. Much of the confu- 
sion and error on this subject, arises, doubtless, from an igno- 
rance of the laws which regulate the propagation of sounds." 

Since the detection of the Fox girls in Buffalo, I 
have not learned that they have submitted to another 
personal examination; but they have, I understand, 
thrown themselves upon their dignity, and refused. 

I received the following statement from such a 
source, that I have no doubt that it is substantially 
correct : 

When the Fox girls visited the city of Washington, 
Prof . Page, the distinguished electro-motive inventor, 
formerly an examiner in the patent office, tested them, 
by making them stand upon pillows; but this did not 
prevent them from rapping. He noticed, however, 
that they lowered themselves a little when they rapped, 
and, upon reflection, he suspected, that they did this 
to step off the pillow, and get one foot in contact 
with the floor; accordingly, at the next interview, he 
arranged a mat so extensive that they could not step 
off, and then amused himself by hearing them call in 



326 MYSTEEIES OF HEAD AND HEAET. 

vain upon the spirits to rap. They gradually, and 
with apparent indifference, got so near the edge of the 
mat, that they could get a foot over its edge without 
its being seen, and then, sure enough, the raps were 
heard. The professor was satisfied that the whole was 
a deception, and so reported to the public. The 
spiritualists — that is, Mr. Fishhough and the Fox 
girls — claim, that electricity is the agent by means 
of which the spirits make the raps. No man in the 
world understands the principles and practicable 
application of electricity better than Prof. Page; but 
he found that electricity had nothing to do with it, 
and was forced to the conclusion, that the raps are 
made by rogues. 

The history of physical spirit manifestations would 
fill several volumes larger than this, but it may be 
safely asserted that those which have .been regarded 
as the most remarkable, and which have been verified 
by the most authentic proofs, have been 'proved to be 
impositions. A memorable instance was that of the 
Cock Lane ghost in London, in which the chief impos- 
ter was a girl, who was at length detected and impris- 
oned. Another case was that of Angelique Cottin, a 
girl in France, fourteen years old, who, under the 
management of one Cholet, deceived the great philos- 
opher Arago, and induced him to have a committee 
of distinguished scientists appointed, to investigate 
and ascertain if articles of furniture were moved in a 
wonderful manner in her presence. After investiga- 
tion they reported " that certain habitual manoeuvres 
hidden in the feet and hands, could have produced 
the observed fact." {See Popular Science Monthly, 
March, 1875^ 



■Hi 



HEAD AND HEART UNBALANCED. 327 

* 

Dr. Bell, President of the Massachusetts Medical 
Society, in 1857, published an account of the move- 
ments of a heavy table under the mysterious influence 
of a young woman near Boston. The authority, tal- 
ents and character of this gentleman were such that 
thousands believed without further investigation. I 
went two hundred miles, called on the doctor, saw the 
manifestations and satisfied myself that the girl pro- 
duced them by " manoeuvres of her hands and feet." 
One condition was that no one must look under the 
table. I demonstrated that, under the same condi- 
tions, I could do the same things that she did. A full 
account of this interview was published by me at the 
time. 

There is, however, no case on record better authen- 
ticated, .or vouched for on higher authority, than that 
of Katie King, in Philadelphia. The Hon. Eobert 
Dale Owen, a gentleman of unsurpassed learning, 
experience and integrity, and author of a remarkable 
work in favor of these sj3iritual manifestations, wit- 
nessed the pretended ^materializations of spirits at the 
house of a Mr. Holmes. He had unrestricted oppor- 
tunities for examining the rooms, the walls and the 
furniture. Dr. Child, a reliable gentleman and emi- 
nent physician, assisted him. There appeared to be 
no possible chance for deception. When all was ready, 
a beautiful woman appeared! Where did she come 
from? There was no place where she could have 
entered! She walked about the room, conversed with 
Mr. Owen, allowed her hands to be felt and kissed, 
and then disappeared as mysteriously as she came! 
In an article published in the Atlantic Monthly, Mr. 
Owen fully committed himself in regard to the spir- 



328 MYSTEEIES OF HEAD AND HEART. 

itual character of Katie King, and produced a great 
sensation by his glowing description of the lovely- 
vision. A few days afterwards he created a much 
greater sensation, by his frank and manly confession 
to the public that he had been grossly imposed upon. 
It seems that Katie was a young widow who lived in 
the neighborhood, and who, when the rooms and bed 
were searched, lay concealed in the bolster! If gen- 
tlemen of such abilities, experience and learning as 
the Hon. Robert Dale Owen and Dr. Child can be 
deceived and duped by such people as the Holmes 
family and their pretended Katie King, what assur- 
ance have we that Professor Crookes or Wallace, or, 
indeed, any one else, has been more shrewd or more 
fortunate ? 

Prof. Wallace next introduces and endorses the 
tricks of the Davenport brothers, and the Pays, all 
of whom are now repudiated by a majority of the 
spiritists themselves in their own country. They 
have been exposed and imitated again and again by 
Dr. Yan Yleck, Dr. Phillips, and several other 
experts. 

A lady in Chicago, named Blair, astonishes her 
patrons by painting beautiful flowers in public, while 
blindfolded; but Dr. Phillips, a highly respectable citi- 
zen of Belvidere, Illinois, allowed himself to be blind- 
folded in the same manner, by the same committee, 
and proved that he could see, notwithstanding, well 
enough to draw and paint as well as usual. But 
neither he nor Mrs. Blair can perform the same feat, 
if a card is interposed between the eyes and the paper 
— this interferes with the conditions! Dr. Slade, Dr. 
Yan Yleck, and Dr. Phillips can each hold a slate under 



HEAD AND HEART UNBALANCED. 329 

a table, while the spirit writes upon it, provided no 
one looks under or attempts to detect the trick. Dr. 
Slade declares that a spirit does the writing, but the 
other two doctors admit that they do it by slight of 
hand. 

"When the Fox girls were in Troy, N". Y., the Hon. 
L. Chandler Ball was astonished, when pointing to the 
letters of the alphabet on a large card, to find that 
the Fox girls rapped every time he pointed at the 
particular letter that he was thinking of; but his wife, 
a lady of extraordinary sagacity, detected the trick and 
surprised and amused him, the next day, at home, by 
proving experimentally that his own face betrayed 
him in each instance, by indicating when he came to 
the right letter. 

" Your face, my Thane, is like a book in 

Which man may read strange matters." — Shakspeare. 

Prof. Wallace, like all other spiritists, insists upon 
certain " conditions " as necessary to the manifesta- 
tions. He says: 

" Scientific men almost invariable assume that, in this inquiry, 
they should be permitted, at the very outset, to impose condi- 
tions; and if, under such conditions, nothing happens, they con- 
sider it a proof of imposture or delusion. But they well know 
that, in all other branches of research, Nature, not they, deter- 
mines the essential conditions, without a compliance with which 
no experiment will succeed. These conditions have to be learnt 
by a patient questioning of Nature, and they are different for 
each branch of science. How much more may they be expected 
to differ in an inquiry which deals with subtle forces of the 
nature of which the physicist is wholly and absolutely ignorant ! 
To ask to be allowed to deal with these unknown phenomena as 
he has hitherto dealt with known phenomena, is practically to 
prejudge the question, since it assumes that both are governed 
by the same laws.'' 



330 MYSTERIES OF HEAD AND HEAET. 

According to the established laws of evidence, if a 
performer insists upon a condition which is of such, a 
nature as to favor concealment, or prevent a thorough 
investigation, his experiment is tainted with a sus- 
picion of fraud, and self-respect requires us to treat it 
accordingly. It is not incumbent upon the investi- 
gator, in such a case, to show that there is actual fraud, 
nor to point out in what precise way the condition or 
restriction insisted upon favors fraud, the fact that a 
restriction is imposed is sufficient of itself to convict 
the exhibitor of fraud. 

It is no answer to this assertion, that " nothing can 
be done in nature nor in art without conditions; " that 
is a self-evident fact — nothing can exist without con- 
ditions. But concealment, restriction of investigation, 
is not one of the conditions of nature nor of art; it is 
only required by jugglers, gamblers, confidence-men, 
swindlers, imposters and cheats. Falsehood can only 
be effective while the truth is concealed. A very sig- 
nificant fact, which is at the same time a proof that 
the pretended necessary conditions is a mere blind, is 
that the writing and speaking mediums perform 
openly in the presence of large audiences, just as well 
as in darkness. The truth is, that if the writing or 
speaking medium is an imposter, you cannot by means 
of sunlight look into the brain and see the deceit 
working there. Mr. A. J. Davis, Mr. Jameison, Mr. 
Loveland, and Mr. Peebles, the very leaders of spirit- 
ism, have declared publicly that more than three- 
fourths of the pretended physical manifestations are 
deceptive. When so much is admitted, shall we 
skeptics not be forgiven if we respectfully suggest that 
the other fourth belongs in the same category? What 



HEAD AND HEART UNBALANCED. 331 

♦ 

should we think of a Rt. Reverend minister, who 
should say to his congregation: "Dearly beloved, 
three-fourths of the Bible is deception and fraud, but 
you can make your calling and election sure by believ- 
ing the remaining fourth! " 

MENTAL MANIFESTATIONS. 

Under the head of mental manifestations are included 
the phenomena of trance speakers, seers, healing me- 
diums, vision-seeing mediums, table-tipping and plan- 
chette and other writing mediums. There is one 
important distinction to be made between the mental 
and the physical manifestations, and that is that nearly 
all of the former, and none of the latter, can be ex- 
plained on the assumption that the medium is honest. 
I have explained the causes of trance, and the manner 
in which it is induced. The prevailing opinion that 
one person can Mesmerize or magnetise another is 
utterly groundless. No one possesses any such power. 
There is no proper evidence that the will of one per- 
son can put another into a trance or a Mesmeric sleep. 
The power that Mesmerizes or entrances a subject is in 
the subject's own brain. All that the operator does is 
to arrange the circumstances and manage the condi- 
tions. The spiritists having adopted the erroneous 
notion that the mere will of the Mesmeric operator 
entrances his subjects, have inferred that there must 
be an invisible spirit, whose will entrances the medi- 
ums. When I demonstrate that the operator's will 
has no effect, and that the conforming propensities of 
the subject are the real sources of the power, I take 
the foundation from under them. Any person who 
can be entranced by an operator, can also entrance 



332 MYSTEKIES OF HEAD AND HEAET. 

himself without the aid of any operator. This has 
been proved by hundreds of experiments. I developed 
the first trance speaker that ever addressed an Ameri- 
can audience. It was in Poughkeepsie, New York, in 
1843, during the course of lectures that led to the 
public advent of Andrew Jackson Davis, the first 
modern spirit medium. A young gentleman named 
Potter, a nephew of Bishop Potter, was Mesmerized 
or entranced, and was found to be exceedingly sus- 
ceptible and versatile. I lectured to very large audi- 
ences every evening for several weeks. Young Potter 
was a graduate of Union College, and a beautiful 
speaker. One evening he came upon the platform, 
and after he became entranced, I made him believe 
that he was Henry Clay, and he at once assumed the 
character, and astonished all present by imitating the 
manner and using the very language that many of the 
audience had heard Clay use. I then told him that 
he was Daniel Webster, and instantly he changed his 
manner, and imitated him also. I recollect one sen- 
tence of the great orator that he repeated with decided 
effect: 

" I thank God, Mr. President, that my lot has been 
cast in this country, and in this age; for it is the land 
of liberty; it is the age of improvement." 

The next day after this performance he called at my 
room in the hotel, and I entranced him, and as a mere 
amusing experiment I showed him several drawings 
of the brain and nerves, and explained them to hirn, 
and asked him to repeat the lesson, which he did. I 
then told him not to recollect that he had been to my 
room when he awoke, but to recollect in the evening, 
on the platform, that in his own room, at home, the 



HEAD AND HEART UNBALANCED. 333 

* 

spirit of Dr. Spurzheim had appeared to him and 
taught him this lesson, and directed him to repeat it 
to the audience. In the evening he walked forward 
and repeated the lesson, explaining the structure of 
the brain and the functions of the nerves in such a 
manner as to surprise the audience, who all knew him 
well. One gentleman arose and said, " I know Potter 
very well — he and I were room-mates in college — 
and I know that he knows nothing of the nerves and 
brain; and I wish to ask if we are to understand by 
this experiment that you stand by Mr. Potter's side 
and vrill him to use the language and express the ideas 
that he does? " I replied that as he was an intimate 
friend, it would be proper for him to ask Mr. Potter 
himself to give an explanation. He did so, and Potter 
said, "To-day, in my own room, the spirit of Dr. 
Spurzheim came, and showed me some drawings, very 
much like these, and explained them to me, and com- 
manded me to come here to-night and repeat what he 
taught me." The gentleman turned to me and asked, 
"Is this story true?" Said I, "Don't you believe 
your friend and class-mate, Mr. Potter?" ""Well, 
yes, I believe that he would not utter a falsehood; but 
this is very wonderful." After Potter had returned to 
his seat in the audience, and the " influence " had ap- 
parently passed off, his friends gathered around him 
and questioned and cross-questioned him; but he 
adhered to his statement, that, while the doors and 
windows of his room were fastened, Spurzheim entered 
and instructed him. At a subsequent lecture I ex- 
plained to the audience the manner in which I per- 
formed the experiment. 

It was after this performance that Andrew Jackson 



334 MYSTERIES OF HEAD AND HEART. 

Davis was developed as a wonderful speaking and 
writing medium by some of the persons who had 
attended my lectures; and when it was reported that 
he knew things in the trance state of which he was 
ignorant in the waking state, instead of supposing 
that it was in consequence of spiritual influence, I 
very naturally inferred that he had been manipulated 
and influenced by his friends privately, in a manner 
similar to that in which I had influenced Mr. Potter, 
the only essential difference being that I explained to 
the public the maimer in which the feat was per- 
formed, whereas the friends of Davis only revealed 
enough to excite wonder and a belief in spirit agency, 
thus affording another illustration of the truth that 
"a little learning is a dangerous thing."* 

The motives that actuated the Davis clique will be 
more apparent when it is further stated that they 
expected to make a large sum of money out of a book, 
" Divine Revelations of Nature," that he was dictating 
under spirit influence. As I was present at the very 
birth of modern spiritism, and was in some sense acci- 
dentally the very father of it, and knew that it had a 
purely Mesmeric or emotional origin, the reader will 
readily understand why I have been skeptical concern- 
ing all the succeeding manifestations. When, about 

* In several histories which I have seen of modern spiritism, 
it is stated that it began with the advent of the Fox girls, in 
1848. This is only true of the physical manifestations. Andrew 
Jackson Davis commenced his public career in 1843. He and 
his friends published the first spiritual book, and started the 
first spiritual newspaper. Among his converts before 1848 were 
no less than ten clergymen, including Mr. Sprague, Mr. Newton, 
Mr. Partridge, Mr. Brittan, Mr. Gibson Smith, Mr. Fishbough, 
and Prof. Bush of the New York University. 



head and. heart unbalanced. 335 

five years afterwards, the Fox girls exhibited them- 
selves at Barn urn's hotel in ]N"ew York city, the Davis 
clique welcomed them and defended them against the 
attacks of the skeptics, particularly Dr. Flint, Dr. Cov- 
entry, Dr. Lee, and myself. 
Prof. Wallace says, p. 16: 

" By explaining table-turning or table-tilting, or raps, you do 
not influence a man who was never convinced by them, but who, 
in broad daylight sees objects move without contact, and behave 
as if guided by intelligent beings, and who sees this in a variety 
of forms, in a variety of places, and under such varied and 
stringent conditions as to make the fact to him just as real as 
the movement of iron to the magnet." 

" Dr. J. Lockhart Robertson, long one of the editors of the 
Journal of Mental Science — a physician who, having made 
mental disease his special study, would not be easily taken in 
by any psychological delusions. The phenomena he witnessed 
fourteen years ago were of a violent character ; a very strong 
table being, at his own request and in his own house, broken to 
pieces while he held the medium's hands. He afterwards him- 
self tried to break a remaining leg of the table, but failed to do 
so after exerting all his strength. Another table was tilted over 
while all the party sat on it. He subsequently had a sitting with 
Mr. Hume, and witnessed the usual phenomena occurring with 
that extraordinary medium — such as the accordion playing 
' most wonderful music without any human agency,' ' a shadow 
hand, not that of any one present, which lifts a pencil and writes 
with it,' etc., etc. ; and he says that he can ' no more doubt the 
physical manifestations of (so-called) spiritualism than he would 
any other fact — as, for example, the fall of an apple to the 
ground of which his senses informed him.' His record of these 
phenomena, with the confirmation by a friend who was present, 
is published in the ' Dialectical Society's Report on Spiritual- 
ism,' p. 247 ; and, at a meeting of spiritualists in 1870, he re-as- 
serted the facts, but denied their spiritual origin. To such a 
man the Quarterly Reviewer's explanations are worthless; yet it 
may be safely said, that every advanced spiritualist has seen 
more remarkable, more varied, and even more inexplicable 
phenomena than those recorded by Dr. Robertson, and is there- 



336 MYSTERIES OP HEAD AND HEART. 

fore still further out of reach of the arguments referred to, which 
are indeed only calculated to convince those who know little or 
nothing of the matter." 

Prof. Wallace is perfectly right in saying, in sub- 
stance, that men who think that they have seen 
impossible things, cannot be convinced by any but 
impossible arguments. I have not the slightest 
degree of belief that a pencil, a table, or anything 
else ever did really rise and write or move about in 
the manner asserted. It is much more probable that 
any number of men should dream, with their eyes 
open, and believe afterwards, that what they saw in 
their dreams was real, than that such things should 
actually happen; it is even a thousand times more 
likely that all the witnesses to these pretended phe- 
nomena are guilty of falsehood than that their state- 
ments are true. A great many respectable persons 
have been known to lie in almost every community, 
but furniture has not been known to move about with- 
out any physical agency. The thing is so uncommon 
as to be incredible, and therefore to require the strong- 
est possible proofs. I agree with Prof. Wallace that 
a man who has actually seen such things cannot be 
convinced by any arguments that have been presented, 
or, I will add, by any that can be. Such a man is 
beyond the reach of argument or of evidence. 

THE TRANCE SPEAKERS. 

There has j^robably been no age or nation of the 
world in which trance speakers have been unknown; 
and like all other things that were not understood, 
the trance has generally been attributed to spirit 
influence. The ancient Hebrews had their prophets 






HEAD AND HEART UNBALANCED. 337 
* 

and seers; the Assyrians their soothsayers; the Greeks 
their oracles, and the Italians their irnprovisitoires. 
The Grecian poem-singers, or minstrels, were sup- 
posed to be inspired by a special class of spirits called 
muses. The poetic fervor or inspiration was regarded 
as a kind of "Divine madness." Even in modern 
times poets are licensed to fly on wings of imagina- 
tion beyond the boundaries of common sense, on the 
supposition that there is something etherial, spiritual 
or semi-angelic in their mental natures which cannot 
be confined down to the realities of practical life. 
There is a character or condition of mind that is 
common to the poetic and to the entranced ; the true 
poet has a larger development of the organs at the 
upper latteral part of the forehead, and to this is 
generally added a sensitive and excitable tempera- 
ment of body. He is also deficient in Acquisitive- 
ness, and indifferent to ordinary business; but he has 
a large intellect which enables him to enrich the 
brilliant productions of his fancy with the valuable 
gems of truth. 

If the intellect is shallow, there may be the same 
poetic disposition, the same glowing fancy, but the 
productions are all " sound and fury, signifying 
nothing"; in nautical phrase, there is "more sail than 
ballast;" we admire it one moment, and then despise 
or pity the next. 

I have explained in another place that trance is pro- 
duced by the excitement of some of the same organs that, 
when large, produce poetic genius ; but, though excited, 
they may not be large; or, if large, and excited, they 
may not have the required cultivation, or be accom- 
panied with the requisite perceptive and reflective 
22 



338 MYSTERIES OF HEAD AND HEART. 

ability to enable them to produce superior results. 
Spirit mediums, when entranced, almost always mani- 
fest a poetic fancy, and a tendency to use exalted and 
refined language ; so much so, that it seems as if they 
are not the same persons as in the normal state. But 
the very same thing is observable in those who are 
entranced by the common Mesmeric process, especially 
when refined people are Mesmerized, and their minds 
turned exclusively to high moral and religious subjects. 
It is not true, as some spiritists pretend that it is, that 
entranced mediums of any kind know more than in 
the normal state; that they speak languages which 
they never heard before — French, Latin, Spanish or 
German — it is absolutely false. I have read in books 
and newspapers that they do so, and 1 have heard it 
asserted on the public platform, by persons who seemed 
to believe it; but again and again, after careful inquiry, 
I have found it to be untrue. 

Almost every week for the last twenty years, I have 
heard assertions like the following: that the contents 
of sealed letters were read by mediums; that the 
names of deceased relatives were written or spoken by 
a medium who never had heard, or read, or in any way 
known of them before; that deceased persons were 
desdflfbed minutely and accurately, and the circum- 
stances of the last sickness and death related correctly ; 
that the medium painted a correct portrait of a person 
long since dead, whom he had never seen, nor his pho- 
tograph, nor even heard him described ; that a medium 
who was utterly ignorant of music, and never played 
upon a piano before, surpassed all mortal players by 
her performances while in the trance, but could not 
play at all when in the normal state. I speak from a 






HEAD AND HEAET UNBALANCED. 339 

* 

large experience, when I pronounce all these stories 

and pretensions unqualifiedly false. By the accepted 
and universal rules of evidence, the spiritists have no 
right to complain of this accusation which I make. 
If they really can do these things, they can convince 
the whole world in spite of my denial. I have in vain 
sought, most diligently, for a single instance in which 
one of these things could be proved, except by sec- 
ondary evidence; that is, the evidence of persons who 
declare that they know it, that they have had the evi- 
dence, and that Crookes, and Owen, and Wallace, and 
Peebles believe it, and therefore I must not question 
it. Such evidence I have had in abundance; but it 
you go into a court of justice with your case, this 
evidence would not even be heard, much less believed. 
The court would reqiiire the experiments to be repeated 
and verified, and all the witnessed to be cross-exam- 
ined, and other witnesses introduced to impeach them, 
or to show that they were biased, or interested. You 
cannot deprive a citizen of life, liberty, nor even one 
dollar's worth of property, without going through the 
ordeal just mentioned, and yet you ask us to surren- 
der what is infinitely more valuable than anything on 
earth, upon evidence which every court of justice 
would reject. 

I have conceded that the trance speakers may be 
honest; while I make this concession, I know very 
well that many of them are not. Some of them were 
sincere when they were first entranced, and poured 
forth spontaneously and extemporaneously what was 
in their minds, but as soon as they began to speak in 
public, they found it necessasy to cultivate their intel- 
lectual faculties, like other people — their knowledge 



340 MYSTERIES OF HEAD AND HEART. 

of grammar, rhetoric, history, logic, elocution, theol- 
ogy and science is accumulated in the usual manner. 
Still there is an activity and acuteness of the mind 
manifested in the trance, together with a loyalty to 
the laws of social propriety and refinement, that invests 
the speaker with a peculiar charm. Prof. Wallace, 
who evidently understands natural history better than 
he does mental physiology, on page 44 of his Defense 
of Modern Spiritism, seems to regard the peculiar 
excellences of the trance speakers as evidences of their 
inspiration. He says: 

Those who helped most to spread the belief were, perhaps, the 
trance speakers, who, in eloquent and powerful language, devel- 
oped the principles and the uses of spiritualism, answered objec- 
tions, spread abroad a knowledge of the phenomena, and thus 
induced skeptics to inquire into the facts ; and inquiry was 
almost invariably followed by conversion. Having repeatedly 
listened to three of these speakers who have visited this country, 
I can bear witness that they fully equal, and not unfrequently 
surpass our best orators and preachers ; whether in finished elo- 
quence, in close and logical argument, or in the readiness with 
which appropriate and convincing replies are made to all 
objectors. They are also remarkable for the perfect courtesy and 
and sauvity of their manner, and for the extreme patience and 
gentleness with which they meet the most violent opposition 
and the most unjust accusations. 

Trance speaking. — The medium goes into a more or less uncon- 
scious state, and then speaks, often on matters and in a style far 
beyond his own capacities. Thus, Serjeant Cox — no mean 
judge on a matter of literary style — says, "I have heard an 
uneducated bar-man, when in a state of trance, maintain a dia- 
logue with a party of philosophers on ' Reason and Foreknowl- 
edge, Will and Fate,' and hold his own against them. I have 
put to him the most difficult questions in psychology, and 
received answers, always thoughtful, often full of wisdom, and 
invariably conveyed in choice and elegant language. Neverthe- 
less a quarter of an hour afterwards, when released from the 



HEAD AND HEART UNBALANCED. 341 

IS 

trance, he was unable to answer the simplest query on a philo- 
sophical subject, and was even at a loss for sufficient language 
to express a commonplace idea." That this is not overstated, I can 
myself testify, from repeated observation of the same medium. 
And from other trance speakers — such as Mrs. Hardinge, Mrs. 
Tappan, and Mr. Peebles — I have heard discourses which, for 
high and sustained eloquence, noble thoughts, and high moral 
purpose, surpassed the best efforts of any preacher or lecturer 
within my experience. 

In regard to Mrs. Hardinge, to whom Prof. Wallace 
refers as a trance speaker — although in her book she 
does me gross injustice — I confess that I am one of 
her admirers. It is true that she has been trained in 
the very best of schools, and taught the art of elocu- 
tion and the uses of poetical rhetoric; but thou- 
sands who have enjoyed equal advantages have failed 
as speakers. Mrs. Hardinge, though apparently awake 
when declaiming, is probably under an "influence" 
which she does not fully understand, and probably 
believes to be a spirit. However that may be, it is 
certain that she is one of the most accomplished pub- 
lic speakers I ever heard. Her elocution, her rhetoric, 
her manner, her voice, are perfect ; even her logic — 
if you admit her premises — is faultless. I felt a deep 
regret, when I heard her, that such splendid talents 
could not be devoted to more useful purposes. 

Prof. Wallace also refers in a complimentary manner 
to the Hon. J. M. Peebles. What I have said of Mrs. 
Hardinge applies in a good degree to him. He is a 
highly cultivated gentleman, of large experience as a 
public speaker, thoroughly acquainted with the arts 
of social life, and more than sincere — almost fanat- 
ical — in his belief of what he advocates. He very 
much resembles Prof. Wallace in his enthusiastic en- 



342 MYSTERIES OF HEAD AND HEART. 

dorsement of the extravagancies of spiritism. With 
all this he mingles a knowledge of the world, of phil- 
osophy, of theology, of history, that to my mind 
seems to he utterly inconsistent with his unbounded 
credulity in regard to his special and favorite theme. 
It is easy for me to understand that such a man, when 
in a trance, even partially, can become a fascinating 
speaker. Mr. Peebles differs from all the so-called 
inspirational speakers that I have heard in the fact 
that he makes his discourses instructive. He does not 
deal, as the other trance speakers do, in mere beautiful 
nothings, but seems to have some pity for the ignor- 
ance of a large number of his co-believers and marvel- 
loving auditors. 

PERSONATION. 

I can also endorse all that Prof. Wallace says of 
Impersonation, except their speaking foreign lan- 
guages never heard in the normal state; and I notice 
that Prof. Wallace does not profess to know the fact 
himself, except by report. 

He says: 

Impersonation.— This occurs during trance. The medium seems 
taken possession of by another being ; speaks, looks and acts the 
character in a most marvelous manner; in some cases speaks 
foreign languages never even heard in the normal state ; as in the 
case of Miss Edmonds, already given. When the influence is 
violent or painful, the effects are such as have been in all ages 
imputed to possession by evil spirits. 

In another place I have referred to the dramatic 
effects produced by the excitement of the conforming 
social organs, particularly Imitativeness — those very 



HEAD AjSTD HEART UNBALANCED. 343 

t 
organs that are large in dramatic authors, and that are 
the sources of their inspiration, are excited in trance 
mediums and Mesmerized subjects. 

Whoever has had much experience in Mesmerism, 
and has seen six or eight persons all entranced at once, 
must have observed a strange and often ridiculous dis- 
position to imitate. If one does a thing, another is 
very likely to begin to do the same; or if the operator 
wishes to amuse his audience, he cannot do it more 
effectually than by telling a subject that he is some 
one else, who is known to the audience, and who has 
some striking peculiarities of voice or gait or manner; 
not only so, but if you tell him that he is a lion, a 
horse, or a locomotive, he will not merely imitate those 
things, but he will show by his manner and speech 
that he has no doubt, at the time, that he is just what 
he is personating. He not only enters into the spirit 
of it, but the spirit of it enters into him. If he is a 
natural actor, his performances surpass in ludicrousness 
anything ever seen in a theatre. 

When these facts in regard to Mesmeric trances are 
understood, the mystery of the personifications of 
spirit mediums disappears, or is merged into that of 
Mesmerism. It is common for entranced mediums to 
believe or assume that they are possessed by the spirit 
of a deceased Indian. In that case the medium enacts 
the character and imitates the broken English that he 
has heard Indians use or been told that they use. It 
is often asserted that they speak the native Indian 
language; but there is no truth in the assertion. They 
merely represent the character as they understand it, 
and they do this with a degree of acuteness and aban- 
don that is admirable. The same medium is some- 



344 MYSTERIES OE HEAD AND HEART. 

times supposed to be controlled by several different 
deceased persons — one at a time, however; and I have 
seen a delicate young woman go into a trance and 
enact the part of an Indian chief for half an hour, and 
then "switch off" onto an old lady, and then change 
again and enact the part of a doctor; and though we 
know very well that the whole performance is merely 
dramatic, it is sometimes done so admirably that we 
are strongly tempted to surrender our better judgment, 
and admit that it is real. This is especially true where 
the medium is an interesting young lady, in whose 
sincerity we have implicit confidence. 

The personification sometimes assumes another form. 
The medium describes the disease, or perhaps the 
death, of some person — not by words, but by imitating 
the supposed patient. If the medium has proper in- 
formation, this is done with painful accuracy. It is 
often pretended that the spirit of the deceased takes 
possession of the medium, and repeats the death scene 
under circumstances in which there could have been 
no knowledge of the case on the part of the medium. 
This is not true. 

DEGREES AND MODES OF TRANCE AND CONFORMITY. 

I have described the effects of extreme conformity 
upon the mental and vital functions, but there are 
many degrees of conformity. In trying the trance 
experiments, the operator will find on an average about 
one in a company of ten who will become a perfect 
dreamer, and who can be put, temporarily, into any 
mental condition that, with his abilities, he is capable 
of assuming. But though the remaining nine may 
none of them be fully entranced, a careful examination 



HEAD AND HEART UNBALANCED. 345 

■t 

will enable the operator to discover that a majority of 
them are affected to a greater or less degree. Perhaps 
one will be unable to open his eyes when told that he 
cannot, or he opens them with difficulty, but all other 
experiments with him may fail; another will move 
his hand involuntarily, as if writing, and yet will not 
write anything intelligible; a third, when told that a 
pencil or anything else is hot, will be unable to hold 
it, yet he cannot be influenced otherwise. A majority 
of persons can be relieved of the headache, or any other 
slight ailment that can be affected by a change in the 
circulation of the blood. It is common to find subjects 
that can be controlled in their movements, but not in 
their sensations; some can become writing mediums, 
but not vision-seeing mediums. These differences in 
subjects depend upon the peculiar conditions of their 
minds, their opinions, beliefs, prejudices and caprices, 
many of which may be unknown to the subjects them- 
selves. 

It frequently happens that one of those who are 
experimented with, pretends to be affected when he is 
not, and performs all the feats suggested, to the satis- 
faction of the operator and the whole company. The 
question is often asked, can we detect the imposition 
in such cases, and distinguish between the genuine 
and the counterfeit? If the person tried is not 
affected in the slightest degree — if his pulse, his 
breathing, and the temperature of his fingers do not 
vary, he is certainly not affected, whatever he may 
pretend. But a subject may manifest all the bodily 
symptoms, and yet his mind be unaffected, or but 
slightly affected. In such a case he may counterfeit 
the trance, and perform in such a manner as to deceive 



346 MYSTERIES OF HEAD AND HEART. 

any one, however experienced. The only evidence we 
have in many cases that the subject is really entranced, 
and is not deceiving, is his own word of honor. I 
know of no person who has had half the experience in 
these matters that I have, and yet I am often unable 
to distinguish the true from the false. I never per- 
form an experiment, even with the most respectable 
people, without guarding against false pretences, by 
asking them such questions that they cannot deceive 
without disgracing themselves, by adding falsehood to 
treachery. 

From the preceding explanations, the reader will be 
prepared to believe that the conforming trance fur- 
nishes the key to many of the otherwise unaccountable 
transactions of both men and women. In matters 
relating to sickness, to love, to business, to religion, 
to crime, we often see a person of at least ordinary 
intelligence, surrendering his own interest, judgment, 
person, property, character, in a manner that indicates 
a kind of infatuation nearly akin to insanity. In 
many of these cases, I have no doubt that the victim 
is actually in a condition nearly analogous to that 
of those who are in the Mesmeric trance. 

HALLUCINATION. 

When a person appears to be perfectly awake, and 
yet believes that he perceives things that do not really 
exist, except in his own dreaming imagination, he is 
said to be laboring under an hallucination. The com- 
mon Mesmeric conforming experiments are very 
instructive on this subject. They prove that at least 
one person in ten will, under certain circumstances 
that are easily arranged, seem to see visions of persons 



HEAD AND HEART UNBALANCED. 347 

■t 
and things near him, that only exist in his own 
mind. He can be made to hear voices and experi- 
ence cold, heat, pain, or any other sensation whatever 
— in a word, to dream anything that can be imagined, 
while to all appearance he is awake and actively 
engaged in his ordinary business. 

This fact being fully understood and appreciated, 
enables us to understand how some honest and truth- 
ful people come to relate such incredible stories as 
they do concerning their experiences and observations 
in regard to modern spiritism. They assert, in the 
mostsolemn manner, that they have seen tables, chairs, 
pianos and stoves move about without physical agency; 
that a man was raised by invisible forces — not phys- 
ical — and conveyed out of one window and in through 
another; that a beautiful painting, which an ordinary 
artist could only produce in a week, they have seen 
executed in half an hour; that photographs are taken 
of deceased persons; that they have often conversed 
with people who have been dead many years. There 
is, of course, not a shadow of truth in any of these 
statements, but neither is there necessarily any inten- 
tional falsehood. If we gently intimate that they 
were in a dreaming state of mind, they indignantly 
reject this charitable hypothesis and leave us no alter- 
native but silence or rudeness. 

The works of Shakspeare give some some fine illus- 
trations of this species of hallucination. He lived in 
the times when witchcraft abounded in Europe. So 
keen an observer of human nature was not likely to 
let the extraordinary phenomena which attended that 
remarkable delusion escape his notice. There is 
nothing in his writings that I have admired more than 



348 MYSTERIES OF HEAD AND HEART. 

the wonderful accuracy with which he describes some 
of the curious phases of hallucination. He must have 
seen persons in what we should now call a trance. He 
denominates it ecstacy. Macbeth is represented as sub- 
ject to it. If he lived at the present day he would 
be regarded as a vision-seeing medium. He was a 
nobleman, a military commander, and a Roman Cath- 
olic, fully imbued with the superstitions of his age 
and nation. On his way homeward from a successful 
expedition against the Norwegians, he met a band of 
gypsies, who prophesied that he would ultimately 
become king. He was convinced, as he wrote to his 
wife, that they " had in them more than mortal knowl- 
edge." Prompted by his wife, and goaded on by his 
ambition, he resolved to murder the venerable mon- 
arch who was his guest. Arming himself with a dag- 
ger, at the hour of midnight, he is stealthily crossing 
the great hall of his castle of Iverness, listening fear- 
fully to each noise. " Thou sure and firm set earth 
hear not my steps." His mind filled with supersti- 
tious dread, yet firmly resolved. Ah! he sees a vision 
of a dagger in the air. He sees it so plainly, and so 
near, that he reaches forth his hand — "Come let me 
clutch thee"; but he only clutches the air. "I have 
thee not, and yet I see thee still. Art thou not. fatal 
vision, sensible to feeling as to sight?" And thus 
reason combats the delusion : " Art thou but a dagger 
of the mind, a false creation proceeding from the heat- 
oppressed brain? " He looks again, and finally comes 
to a conclusion that our spiritual friends might well 
adopt: " Tis no such thing." 

In the banquet scene, the ruffians whom he employed 
to kill Banquo come and inform him that " Deep in a 



HEAD AND HEAET UNBALANCED. 349 
t 

ditch lie lies, with forty mortal murders on his crown." 
With this idea in his mind, he commences the ban- 
quet by proposing Banquo's health, when, in the very 
place where Ban quo would have sat had he been pres- 
ent, there was his pale and bloody ghost, staring him 
in the face. No one else saw anything strange, but 
Macbeth, supposing that others saw what he did, 
exclaims: " Can such things be and overcome us like 
a summer cloud, without our special wonder? " " You 
can keep the natural ruby of your cheeks, while mine 
are blanched with fear.*' And when his wife, fearing 
that he would betray himself, said: "After all, you 
look but on a stool! " He exclaims: If " I stand here 
I saw him." I have heard many spiritists make simi- 
lar exclamations, with equal sincerity and with equal 
truth. 

Hamlet is another of Shakspeare's mediums. In 
the scene where he upbraids his mother, he suddenly 
sees the spirit of his father, and hears his voice com- 
manding him to forbear. His mother asks: 

Queen. — Alas ! liow is't with you, 

That you do bend your eye on vacancy, 
And with the incorporeal air do hold discourse. 
Whereon do you look ? 
Hamlet. — On him ! on him ! 

Look you how pale he glares ! 
Queen. — To whom do you speak this ? 
Hamlet. — Do you see nothing there ? 
Queen. — Nothing at all; yet all that is I see 
Hamlet. — Nor do you nothing hear ? 
Queen. — No ; nothing but ourselves. 

Hamlet. — "Why, look you there! Look how it steals away! 
My father in his habit as he lived ! 
Look, where he goes even now out at the portal ! 



350 MYSTERIES OF HEAD AND HEART. 

Queen. — This is the very coinage of your brain, 
This bodiless creation ecstacy 
Is very cunning in. 
Hamlet. — Ecstacy ! my pulse 

As yours doth temperately keep time, 
And makes as excellent music. 

Shakspeare is the only author that I know of who 
has remarked that ecstacy or trance is accompanied 
by a change in the pulse. 



Delineation of the Character of 



To accommodate those who may wish to have the results 
of their examinations recorded in this book, I here leave 
several pages blank, upon which the main points in the 
character may be stated in writing, and I have also added 
a chart or list of the organs, the relative sizes of which 
are to be marked. 



APPENDIX. 



PHKENO-CHAKT OF 



EXPLANATION OF THE MARKS USED IN EXAMINATION. 

If a head is perfectly balanced, every organ will be marked 4. 
If an organ is marked more than 4, it is above the average of 
the organs of the same head ; if it is marked less than 4, it is 
below the average. An interrogation point (?) signifies that the 
examiner is in doubt about the organ. 

Page of book where 
it is explained. 

OBSERVATION 13 



FORM . 16 

SIZE 17 

WEIGHT 18 

COLOR 23 

ORDER 24 

NUMBER - 25 

WORDS 21 

(351) 



352 APPENDIX. 

LOCALITY 19 

EVENTUALITY 29 

TIME • 29 

COMPARISON 30 

CASUALITY 32 

ALIMENTIVENESS 37 

..--. SANATIVENESS.... 40 

DESTRUCTIVENESS 44 

COMBAT1VENESS 46 

SECRETIVENESS 48 

CAUTIOUSNESS 51 

CONSTRUCTIVENESS 56 

ACQUISITIVENESS 58 

TUNEFULNESS 63 

EXPERIMENTIVENESS... 65 

(or Wit.) 

PERFECTIVENESS 66 

(or Ideality.) 

HOPEFULNESS 73 



... AMATIVENESS 81 

... PARENTIVENESS.... 86 

... INHABITIVENESS 89 

... ADHESIVENESS 91 



IMPERATIVENESS 91 

(or Self Esteem.) 

APPROBATI VENESS 94 



APPENDIX. 353 

. FIRMNESS 98 

. EQUITABLENESS .... 101 

(or Conscientiousness.) 

. SUBMISSIVENESS... . _. 105 

(or Reverence.) 

. KINDNESS 108 

. IMITATIVENESS . 110 

. CREDENSIVENESS 114 

(or Marvelousness.) 

SIZE OF THE HEAD. 128 



TEMPERAMENT. 121 



OPINIONS. 



When Prof. Grimes' system was first published, the Phreno- 
logical societies of Buffalo, Albany, Hartford and London, 
appointed committees who, in each instance, reported in its 
favor, and regarded it as a great improvement upon the systems 
of his predecessors. The following is an extract from the report 
of the Albany society, of which Thomas W. Olcott was president 
and Rufus Peckham (afterwards attorney general) vice-president. 
Among the members were Prof. Amos Dean, Prof. E. N". Hors- 
ford, and Mr. Wm. Combe, brother of Geo. Combe, the phreno- 
logical author: 

" While the division of the powers into three classes, and their 
subdivision into ranges and groups, may be considered import- 
ant and useful, the distinguishing feature, and that which to the 
committee constitutes the highest merit of the new classification 
consists in this, that it traces the chain of functional relation- 
ship, from the lowest organ to the highest of each class. 

" If Mr. Grimes' classification is founded in nature, the follow- 
ing are some of the advantages which may be expected from its 
adoption: 

" 1. It will facilitate the application of phrenological prmcv 
pies in deciding upon character from an examination of tnt 
head. Upon noticing the predominance of one class of orgauv 
it may be said of the individual thus marked, he is Ipseal, Social, 
or Intellectual ; or, upon observing two classes prevailing over 
the third, it may be said, he is Ipseal and Intellectual, or Social 
and Intellectual, or both Ipseal and Social. The same principle 
will be applicable in speaking of the development of one group, 
or of two groups of the Socials, and also of the ranges of Ipseal? 
and Intellectuals. The effects of a combined development ol 
particular groups in the different classes will be more readily 
understood. 

(354) 



opinions. 355 

" 2. It will aid analysis, in ascertaining the ultimate function 
of each organ. Upon knowing its position, and the relation it 
sustains to others — with what organ it would probably act, and 
whether in the centre of a class, or joined to organs of other 
classes, its manifestations will be more readily perceived, and 
more clearly comprehended. 

"3. It will aid in discovery, by directing the eyes of all phre- 
nologists to limited regions of the brain, when in search for the 
seat of a faculty, in whose existence they have been induced to 
believe. For example, if the seat of a supposed power related to 
corporeal wants be sought, the attention will be directed to devel- 
opments and deficiencies in the corporeal range. If the function 
of the organ occupying the region marked upon the bust of Mr. 
Combe as unknown, be the object of discovery, several aids will 
be afforded. It must, in the first place, be either Ipseal or Social ; 
and in the second place, it must be either a Social of the con- 
forming group, or an Ipseal of the human range. 

"4. It will furnish phrenology with new claims to the char- 
acted of an established science ; and by its simplicity and con- 
sistency, will induce the student to pursue its investigation with 
the same kind of satisfaction that now attends his study of the 
older sciences. 

" In conclusion, the committee state, that distrusting their own 
abilities to discharge the duties assigned them, they entered 
into correspondence upon the question to be determined with 
several phrenological writers. They have also examined all the 
published works relating to the subject which they could com- 
mand. And with these materials before them, after weighing 
the whole matter, the result is the opinion, that the classification 
of Mr. Grimes is a decided improvement, as it arranges the pow- 
ers of the mind more nearly in accordance with the laws of 
natural relationship than any of the systems wdiich have pre- 
ceded it. 

" E. 1ST. HORSFOKD, Chairman 
of Committe on Q-rime^ Classification." 



"At the close of Mr. Grimes' lectures, delivered in the Chapel 
of the Albany Female Academy, the class organized by appoint- 
ing Charles D. Townsend, M. D., Chairman, and Thomas W. 
Olcott, Esq., Secretary. Whereupon Henry Green, M. D., intro- 



856 OPINIONS. 

duced the following resolutions, which were unanimously- 
adopted : 

" Resolved, That we have listened with exciting interest to the 
lectures of Mr. Grimes, President of the Phrenological Society 
of Buffalo, on the science of Phrenology. 

"Resolved, That we believe Mr. Grimes has made new and 
important discoveries in Phrenology ; that his arrangement of 
the brain into three classes of organs, viz.: — the Ipseal, Social 
and Intellectual, together with their subdivisions into ranges or 
groups, is founded in nature, the anatomy of the brain, and the 
natural gradation of animals as they rise in the scale of being. 

" Resolved, That we are forced to believe that Phrenology, as 
taught by Mr. Grimes, may be learned by persons of ordinary 
intelligence and observation, so as to be useful to them in their 
every day intercourse with society — that it is destined to improve 
our race, remodel the present mode of education, become useful 
in legislation, and in the government of children in families and 
in schools. 

" Resolved, That we not only esteem it a duty, but regard it a 
pleasure, to encourage talents, genius and enterprise, wherever we 
discover them, and in whatever pursuit, if the object and effect is 
the improvement of mankind — that we regard Mr. Grimes as 
possessing the highest order of intellect, as original in his obser- 
vations and deductions, and as destined to fill a distinguished 
place in the scientific world. 

" Resolved, That we confidently recommend Mr. Grimes to the 
attention of our fellow-citizens in different sections of our 
extended country, believing they will find him an accomplished 
lecturer, a close, accurate, forcible reasoner, and inimitable in 
his illustrations of the science he so triumphantly advocates. 

"Resolved, That Henry Green, M. D., and Professor McKee, of 
the Albany Academy, be a committee to present a copy of these 
resolutions to Mr. Grimes, and request their publication in the 
daily papers of the city. 

"CD. TOWNSEND, M. D., Chairman. 

"T. W. OiiCOTT, Secretary." 



"Professor Grimes, the phrenologian, whose original and 
ingenious views on phrenological science have caused his lec- 
tures to be very much followed in our western cities, has arrived 
here, and puts up at the Astor. He brings with him most flatter- 



OPINIONS. 357 

t 

ing testimonials, from his Excellency the Governor and others 
of Albany, where his last course was delivered. He proposes, we 
are pleased to hear, to give an opportunity to the citizens of New 
York to judge of the merits of his discoveries and deductions, in 
what he justly terms the science of phreno-physiognomy, embrac- 
ing all the phenomena developed in the brain, features, and 
whole organization, and character and habits of the individual, 
as divided into three great orders of mammalia, viz. : — the carni- 
vores, the graminivorce and the rodentice — corroborated by illus- 
trations from every tribe of animated nature — the only true and 
exact base of this interesting science." — _ZV. Y. Star. 

" Lecture on Phrenology. — Professor Grimes, we are happy to 
hear, has consented to repeat his introductory lecture on Phre- 
nology this evening, at the rooms of the American Institute, rear 
of the City Hall. The views on the science of Phrenology, pre- 
sented by Professor Grimes on Monday evening, were entirely 
new, and elicited a universal request from the audience for a 
repetition on this evening, and we trust all who feel an interest 
in the subject will attend." — N. Y. Times. 

" We understand, the lectures of Mr. Grimes, at the Crosby 
street Institute, before the Mechanics' and Tradesmen's Library 
Association, are so crowded that it is next to impossible to obtain 
admission. Last night a great number had to go away. We felt 
sure that when this gifted and luminous expounder of the only 
true laws of phrenological science should have a hearing, he 
would daily gain more and more converts to his views on this 
interesting subject." — N. Y. Star. 

" Phrenology.. — This science, which seems strongly based upon 
truth, however erroneous may be some of the theories deducted 
from it, and however mistaken some of its professors may be in 
its application, nevertheless appears to be slowly gaining a strong 
hold upon the faith of the multitude. A new and popular lec- 
turer on this subject is now in this city, and will deliver a course, 
as will be seen by the advertisement. Mr. Grimes gave an intro- 
ductory lecture last evening. His first regular lecture will com- 
mence this evening. His mode of illustration is exceedingly 
happy and forcible. Possessing a great fund of humor, he tickles 
his audience into a roar while conveying much important infor- 
mation — so, his hearers are both instructed and exceedingly 
amused at the same time. We cannot tell, of course, how the 



358 opinions. 

lectures 'will wear ; but lie seems to have made a decided hit in 
the beginning. We understand that he has made some practical 
experiments of his theory at the College, with great success, hit- 
ting the characters even of those who attempted to mislead him. 
We perceive that Mr. Grimes brings with him flattering testi- 
monials from a number of well known individuals in the larger 
cities, and the Phrenological Society of Albany have published 
resolutions highly commendatory of hirn and his system." — New 
Haven Palladium. 

" Mr. Grimes' Phrenological Lectures have been exceedingly 
well received in this city, by the class in attendance. As he 
progressed with his course, his hearers increased, and those 
who were in constant attendance were apparently more and more 
interested with every succeeding lecture, to the close of the series. 
We do not believe Mr. Combe is his superior, in any sense, as a 
lecturer on this science, and we know he is altogether his inferior 
in many particulars. The following resolutions express the 
opinions of most if not all of Mr. Grimes' hearers in this city." — 
New Haven Palladium. 

" Professor Grimes. — This gentleman is slowly, but surely gain- 
ing a merited popularity among our citizens, without resorting 
to any of the usual means to acquire notoriety ; hardly advertis- 
ing in the public prints to inform our people that he is present 
with us, his audiences are nightly increasing, and are of a class 
which neither humbugs nor mediocrity could satisfy. His great 
merit is quaint and hearty originality. He appears to be a close 
observer of human nature, the foibles of which he illustrates with 
infinite fancy and sarcasm. His manner of discourse is peculiar ; 
he is exceedingly impressive in depicting the different emotions 
of the mind, a capital mimic, when relating the droll anecdotes 
in which he abounds, and yet sober and serious when treating 
of the more profound themes of his discourse. 

" The basis of his lecture is Phrenology, being a modification 
of the systems of Spurzheim and Combe. He does not confine 
himself to the brain alone, but to the whole structure and consti- 
tution of the frame, to judge of the tendencies and capabilities 
of the individual. 

" Mi\ Grimes, we understand, is a lawyer of some eminence in 
the State of New York. Having had much success as a lecturer, 
he employs the vacant time between the sessions of the court, in 



opinions. 359 

t 

promulgating his peculiar views on men and things. This is his 
first visit to our city in this capacity, although originally a Bos- 
ton boy, where at school, we have heard it hinted, he was chiefly 
remarkable for the fact that he could thrash every boy in it. He 
seems disposed to come off victorious even now with any one, 
either physically or mentally, who is inclined to grapple with 
him, or is anxious to feel the weight of his calibre. His lecture 
this evening is on Hope, at the Tremont Temple." — Boston Daily 



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